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SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM 
IN  THE  SOUTH. 


11  Remember  that  to  change  thy  opinion,  and  to  follow 
him  who  corrects  thy  error,  is  as  consistent  with  freedom 
as  it  is  to  persist  in  thy  error!' 

MARCUS   AURELIUS. 

"  There  is  no  ignorance  more  shameful  than  to  admit 
as  true  that  which  one  does  not  understand ;  atid  there 
is  no  advantage  so  great  as  that  of  being  set  free  from 
error y 

SOCRA  TES. 


SLAVERY 

AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM 

IN  THE  SOUTH. 

WITH     SPECIAL    REFERENCE 
TO  THE  STATE  OF  GEORGIA. 


Address  of 

HON.  WM.  H.  FLEMING, 

Before  the  Alumni  Society  of  the  State  University, 

Athens,  June  19,  1906. 


I    Boston  :  <  .  ;     • 
Dana  Estes  &  Company) 
Publishers. 


This    special    edition   on   large   paper  is 

limited  to  one  thousand  copies,  of 

which  this  is  Number — ill— 


•  •  •  .•  • .  •  • 
••  ••••••••  •■ 


INTRODUCTION. 


A  concise  statement  of  the  reasons  which  led  to  this 
publication  in  a  permanent  form  may  appropriately  be  in 
the  nature  of  a  Publisher's  Announcement,  and  excerpts 
from  correspondence  relating  to  it  will  probably  give  the 
best  idea  of  these  reasons. 

The  correspondence  regarding  this  speech  began  by  a 

letter  from  the  writer,  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy: 

"July  5th  1906. 
"  Honorable  William  H.  Fleming, 

My  Dear  Mr.  Fleming  : — 

I  think  that  you  and  the  whole 
country  are  to  be  congratulated  upon  your  grand  exposition  of 
the  principles  which  should  guide  the  South,  and  indeed  the 
whole  country,  in  dealing  with  the  problem  of  the  negro  race. 

I  have  for  several  years  spent  my  winters  in  Africa,  and  have 
studied  the  conditions  of  the  African  upon  his  own  ground,  hav- 
ing penetrated  to  the  equatorial  countries  of  the  Uganda  and  the 
Congo  State,  in  addition  to  traveling  the  whole  extent  of  the 
Soudan,  and  while  I  agree  with  you  in  your  statement  that  "  God 
knows  the  South  wants  no  more  of  that  curse,"  of  slavery,  and 
while  I  agree  with  the  general  statement  that  "  slavery  is  the  sum 
of  all  evils,"  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  greatest 
wrong  which  slavery  inflicts  upon  a  people  is  not  upon  the  slave, 
but  upon  the  slaveholder.  No  matter  how  greatly  the  slave  is 
degraded,  the  evil  effects  to  the  superior  race  that  holds  the 
slave  is  in  my  opinion  the  greater  wrong  of  the  two  to  the  general 
civilization  of  the  world. 

To  be,  as  you  are,  a  leader  in  this  movement,  is  in  my  opin- 


224095 


ion  one  of  the  highest  honors  to  which  any  American  can  aspire. 
I  deem  your  speech  a  real  milestone  in  the  path  of  progress,  and 
with  your  consent,  I  should  be  glad  to  reprint  it  in  an  attractive 
form  to  extend  its  circulation  as  far  as  I  can. 

.  Yours  sincerely, 

Dana  Estes." 


A  prompt  reply  contained  the  consent  to  the  publica- 
tion, and  in  offering  it  to  the  public,  the  editor  felt  that  the 
endorsement  of  the  leaders  of  political  and  moral  move- 
ments throughout  the  country  would  be  of  service  in  ex- 
tending its  influence.  He,  therefore,  addressed  President 
Roosevelt  for  this  purpose,  and  the  following  are  excerpts 
from  the  correspondence  regarding  this  subject : 

"July  23rd,  1906. 
"  To  the  President, 

My  Dear  Sir : — 

I  think  it  beyond  doubt  that  your  atten- 
tion has  been  attracted  to  the  patriotic  and  important  speech  of 
the  Honorable  William  H.  Fleming  of  Georgia. 

I  have  asked  of  him,  as  per  enclosed  copy  of  my  letter  to 
him  of  July  5  th,  the  privilege  of  reprinting  this  in  an  attractive 
form  to  extend  its  benefits  as  widely  as  possible.  It  seems  to  me 
to  mark  an  epoch  in  this  agitation,  and  I  am  informed  that  since 
the  delivery  of  this  speech  the  Committee  of  the  Georgia  legisla- 
ture has  reported  against  the  passage  of  the  disfranchisement 
bill  without  a  dissenting  vote.  I  believe  this  to  be  largely  the  re- 
sult of  Mr.  Fleming's  great  speech. 

If  it  would  be  entirely  proper  for  you,  in  view  of  your  exalted 
official  position,  to  commend  the  sentiments  of  this  speech,  and 
permit  such  commendation  to  be  used  in  an  introduction  to  the 
speech,  I  should  be  pleased  to  receive  the  same  from  you. 

The  publication  of  the  speech  is  not  intended  as  a  commer- 
cial transaction.     ***** 

Yours  respectfully, 

Dana  Estes." 


(Hon.  Harry  Hammond,  Beach  Island,  S.  C,  letter  June  27th.) 
"Van  Hoist,  a  northern  sympathizer,  said  a  century  and  a 
half  must  elapse  before  a  verdict  could  be  reached  as  to  the  wis- 
dom of  emancipation.  The  solution  of  the  race  problem  advo- 
cated by  you  —  Justice  to  the  Negro  —  needs  no  time  for  its 
confirmation.  It  ^s  registered  among  the  indisputable  truths  of 
eternity  itself." 

(Former  Congressman  Wm.  H.  Felton,  Cartersville,  Ga.) 
"  I  thank  you  with  all  my  heart  for  the  address  made  at  the 

Athens  Commencement.     Yours  were  words  of  sober  caution 

and  profound  prudential  wisdom." 

(Emory  Speer,  U.  S.  District  Judge,  letter  June  27th.; 
"  I  have  received  the  pamphlet  print  of  your  great  speech  on 
Slavery  and  the  Race  Problem  in  the  South.  I  had  the  happi- 
ness of  hearing  this  appeal  to  the  intelligence  and  sense  of 
justice  of  our  people,  and  I  cannot  well  overstate  the  pleasure  it 
gave  me  to  see  with  what  enthusiasm  the  Alumni  body  of  our 
Alma  Mater  present  received  such  a  fearless  and  truthful  exposi- 
tion of  great  and  salutary  truths." 

(James  R.  Randal,  New  Orleans,  Author  of  "  Maryland,  My 

Maryland,"  letter  June  27th.) 
"The  speech  was  a  masterpiece.     No  one  else  could  have 
done  it." 

(Judge  W.  H.  Hulsey,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  letter  June  29th.) 

"  Reading  your  address  from  start  to  finish,  it  pleases  me  to 

say  that  every  patriotic  Georgian  ought  to  feel  grateful  to  you  for 

giving  to  your  state  a  clear,  forceful  and  masterly  presentation  in 

your  Athens  address  of  what  may  be  termed  the  Negro  Problem." 

(Hon.  Moorfield  Storey,  Boston,  Mass.,  letter  June  29th.) 
"It  is  a  courageous  thing  to  stand  up  in  one's  country  and 
speak  as  you  have  done,  and  such  courage  is  very  much  needed 
today.     You  have  never  lacked  that  quality,  and  I  hope  your 
example  will  be  an  inspiration  to  others." 


"Oyster  Bay,  N.  Y.,  July  25,  1906. 
"  My  Dear  Mr.  Estes  : 

I  am  glad  that  you  are  to  publish  ex-Congress- 
man Fleming's  noteworthy  speech  in  more  permanent  form  than 
it  is  possible  ordinarily  to  publish  such  speeches.     ***** 

Mr.  Fleming's  speech  is  admirable,  alike  for  its  fearlessness, 
its  sanity,  and  the  high  purpose  which  it  shows.  The  problems 
of  any  one  part  of  our  great  common  country  should  be  held  to 
be  the  problems  of  all  our  country  —  at  least  to  the  extent  that 
all  our  people  should  give  their  hearty  and  respectful  sympathy 
to  those  who  in  their  own  neighborhood,  are  trying  to  solve  their 
particular  problems  aright.  In  each  locality  we  have  our  own 
special  and  peculiar  difficulties ;  and  when  a  brave  and  honest 
man  does  good  work  in  meeting  the  peculiar  difficulties  of  his 
own  region,  he  not  only  does  good  therein,  but  by  example  and 
influence  he  helps  Americans  in  other  parts  of  our  great  common- 
wealth manfully  to  grapple  with  the  various  evils  which  they  in 
their  turn,  have  to  strive  against. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Theodore  Roosevelt." 


At  the  writer's  especial  request,  Mr.  Fleming  has  fur- 
nished him  with  a  few  excerpts  from  the  many  letters  of 
approval  which  he  has  received  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try; and  especially  from  leaders  of  opinion  in  the  South. 
In  his  reply  he  says :  "  Many  of  the  strongest  commenda- 
tions which  my  speech  have  received  have  been  given  to 
me  in  person  by  word  of  mouth,  and,  consequently,  do  not 
appear  in  written  form  that  could  be  used."  Among  the 
many  received  by  letters  may  be  quoted  the  following  from 
Judge  John  L.  Hopkins  of  Atlanta : 

"  I  have  read  your  speech  more  than  once.  It  is  satisfying. 
In  some  of  its  parts  it  has  been  comforting  to  me  —  in  all,  inter- 
esting. The  preparation  of  such  a  paper  is  a  valuable  service  to 
the  state.     It  was  needed  —  it  was  just  the  right  thing." 


(Judge  Joel  Branhan  of  Rome,  Ga.,  letter  June  23rd.) 
"  I  want  to  thank  you  for  your  grand  speech  on  the  disfran- 
chisement of  the  negro  before  the  Alumni  of  the  University  of 
Georgia  on  the  19th  inst.,  which  I  have  just  had  the  pleasure  of 
reading.     It  is  truthful,  honest  and  unanswerable." 

(R.  F.  Campbell,  Ashville,  N.  C.,  letter  June  25th.) 
"In  intellectual  strength  and  moral  soundness,  it  takes  the 
place  easily  among  the  very  best  things  ever  written  or  spoken 
on  this  subject." 

(Congressman  W.  M.  Howard,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  letter  June  25th.) 
"  I  am  very  glad  to  get  the  speech,  not  because  it  is  a  reve- 
lation to  me  of  your  views  on  this  question,  but  especially  to  know 
precisely  what  you  said  in  view  of  the  criticism  I  have  seen  in 
the  papers  about  it.  The  speech  is  up  to  the  very  best  of  your 
ability,  and  I  am  proud  of  you  as  a  friend  and  a  citizen  of  Geor- 
gia because  of  the  pertinence  and  power  of  the  speech.  I  am 
glad  that  you  made  it  when  and  where  you  did.  It  is  the  strong- 
est and  clearest  voice  that  has  been  heard  since  this  issue  became 
state  wide." 

(Prof.  W.  S.  Bean,  Clinton,  S.  C,  letter  June  25  th.) 
"  I  am  delighted  with  the  address,  its  calmness  and  fairness 
of  statement,  its  ample  basis  of  fact,  its  appeal  to  a  sense  of 
justice  and  fairness  and  its  belief  in  the  principle  that  no  wrong 
can  be  inflicted  for  political  purposes  which  will  not  certainly  re- 
act upon  the  agent  at  sometime.  *****  I  am  glad 
you  had  such  a  splendid  opportunity,  such  a  fine,  intelligent 
audience,  and  that  you  rose  to  the  occasion  in  a  speech  that  is 
masterly,  statesmanlike  and  Christian.  May  you  live  long  to 
keep  up  such  a  good  work  and  find  staunch  friends  to  stand  by 
you  and  your  principles." 

(C.  P.  Goodyear,  Brunswick,  Ga.,  letter  June  27th.) 
"  That  was  a  great  and  statesmanlike  and  patriotic  speech  of 
yours  at  the  University.     The  day  will  come  when  wise  men  in 
Georgia,  —  good   men   everywhere, — will   appreciate  the  calm 
temper  and  patriotic  thought  which  dictated  it." 


(George  Foster  Peabody,  New  York  City,  letter  June  28th.) 
"  The  more  I  think  of  the  matter,  the  more  do  I  believe  that 
you  have  done  a  far-reaching  service  and  that  it  may  well  prove 
to  be  the  case  that  no  address  during  the  last  twenty  years  has 
been  more  important." 

(Ex-Gov.  Allen  D.  Candler,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  letter  July  4th.) 
"  I  have  read  it  with  a  great  deal  of  interest,  and  it  is  with- 
out exaggeration  a  gem,  and  every  loyal  Georgian  who  knows 
Georgia  and  her  career  in  the  past  and  the  apparent  insuperable 
obstacles  her  people  have  had  to  surmount  will  thank  you  for  it. 
*  *  *  I  think  no  fitter  occasion  could  have  been  found  for 
the  utterance  of  the  lofty  sentiments  contained  in  it  than  the 
Commencement  of  the  State  University  before  the  Alumni  Asso- 
ciation of  the  oldest  state  college  in  America." 

(T.  C.  Betterton,  Dalton,  Ga.,  letter  July  8th.) 
"  Please  allow  me  to  say  that  you  have  in  this  address  per- 
formed the  highest  possible  service  to  your  state  and  to  the 
South.      I  would  that  every  citizen  in  our  state  could  read  it 
thoroughly." 

(Rev.  Walker  Lewis,  Augusta,  Ga.,  letter  July  15th.) 
"I  have  just  finished  the  best  Sunday  reading  I  have  seen  in 
many  years.     It  is  your  great  article  on  the  Race  Question.     It 
is  masterful,  it  is  unanswerable,  it  is  worthy  of  a  great  statesman ; 
it  is  Christian  philosophy  and  righteousness." 

(Francis  Lynde  Stetson,  Sterlington,  Rockland  Co.,  N.  Y., 
letter  July  8th.) 
"I  consider  it  the  best  presentation  of  the  various  phases  of 
this  difficult  question  that  I  have  ever  seen,  and  his  proposed 
solution  through  the  ordinary  observation  of  the  universal  man- 
date of  the  moral  law  attests  his  sanity." 

"Lake  George,  N.  Y.,  3rd  July,  1906. 
"The  Honorable  William  H.  Fleming,  Augusta,  Ga. 
My  Dear  Sir  :  — 

I  cannot  forbear  writing  to  you  of  my 
delight  at  your  great  speech,  delivered  before  the  Alumni  Society 


at  the  University  of  Georgia.  In  its  insight,  its  iron  logic,  its 
political  perspective,  and  its  high  morality,  it  is,  I  think,  one  of 
the  greatest  constructive  addresses  of  the  time  ;  and  these  qual- 
ities mark  it  as  belonging  to  that  class  of  political  literature  to 
which  the  speeches  of  Webster,  Hayne  and  Lincoln  belong.  I 
would  not  be  guilty  of  flattery,  but  such  an  address  at  such  a 
time  and  place  is  an  event  which  gives  one  a  legitimate  pride  in 
human  kind,  and  a  joy  in  the  mere  fact  of  living.  I  have  long 
felt  that  this  time  with  its  problems,  on  the  principle  that  great 
occasions  make  great  men,  is  one  which  must  call  int^  being  and 
action  men  of  the  first  order,  men  who  are  capable  of  seeing  the 
significance  of  the  time  and  of  meeting  its  great  demands.  I 
think  the  men  are  coming,  and  I  hail  your  speech  as  a  sign  that 
they  are  coming.  Faithfully  yours, 

Samuel  H.  Bishop." 

(Prof.  Chas.  Eliot  Norton,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  letter  Aug.  nth.) 
"Nothing  could  be  better  than  its  spirit.  It  would  be  a  most 
encouraging  sign  in  these  confused  days  should  your  appeal  to 
the  intelligent  and  moral  sympathy  of  the  community  be  heeded 
and  responded  to." 

(Richard  C.  Ogden,  Madison  Ave.,  New  York,  letter  Aug.  12th.) 
"  I  appreciate  your  great  contribution  to  the  solution  of  the 
one  great  question  that  retards  the  growth  of  American  unity." 

(H.  B.  Brown,  Ex- Justice  Sup.  Court,  U.  S.,  letter  Aug.  5th.) 
"  I  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  to  you  my  appreciation  of 
your  masterly  address  of  June  19th  upon  Slavery  and  the  Race 
Problem.  It  is  quite  the  most  satisfactory  of  any  I  have  seen 
upon  that  subject.  I  cannot  doubt  your  views  will  ultimately 
prevail  in  the  South,  as  they  do  already  in  the  North.  I  have 
always  believed  the  question  of  suffrage  would  finally  be  solved 
by  the  adoption  of  an  educational  or  property  qualification, 
which,  if  fairly  administered,  would  answer  the  purpose.  I  do 
not  think  anyone  should  be  disfranchised  solely  on  account  of 
color." 

The  writer  has  made  no  attempt  to  collect  the  opinions 


of  the  Press,  though  he  has  seen  many  that  were  as  em- 
phatic in  commendation  as  are  the  personal  opinions  here- 
with submitted.  He  can  not,  however,  refrain  from  a  brief 
excerpt  from  an  editorial  of  the  "Augusta  (Ga.)  Chron- 
icle:" 

"The  speech  was  pronounced  by  all  who  heard  il  or  read  it 
to  be  the  greatest  ever  delivered  from  the  University  platform." 

It  may  not  be  inappropriately  stated  that  commercial 
considerations  have  had  no  part  in  influencing  the  publica- 
tion of  this  speech,  that  the  profits  arising  from  its  publica- 
tion will  be  devoted  to  educational  work  in  the  South,  and 
that  the  editor,  and  not  the  author,  is  responsible  for  the 
insertion  of  the  quotations  on  page  facing  the  title  page  of 
the  work,  and  the  portrait  of  the  author. 

Dana  Estes. 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM 
IN  THE  SOUTH. 


Brothers  of  the  Alumni  Society,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 

It  is  my  purpose  to  discuss  slavery  and  the  race 
problem  in  the  South,  with  special  reference  to  our  own 
State  of  Georgia. 

No  public  issue  is  more  deserving  of  thoughtful  con- 
sideration by  our  people,  and  no  occasion  could  be  more 
fit  for  its  discussion.  This  audience  is  qualified  in  head 
and  heart  to  appreciate  at  its  true  value  every  argument 
that  may  be  advanced,  and  this  platform  at  our  chief  seat 
of  learning  is  so  lifted  up,  that  words  spoken  here  may  be 
heard  in  all  parts  of  the  State,  echoing  among  the  "  Hills 
of  Habersham"  and  over  the  "Sea  Marshes  of  Glynn. " 

If  there  be  any  one  present  perturbed  by  a  secret 
doubt  as  to  the  propriety  of  my  bringing  this  subject  and 
this  occasion  together  in  the  midst  of  the  pending  political 
campaign  in  Georgia,  let  me  hasten  to  allay  his  fears  with 
the  assurance  that  I  shall  carefully  refrain  from  all  offensive 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

personal  allusions.  Speaking  to  this  very  point  some 
weeks  before  his  fatal  illness,  Chancellor  Hill  cordially 
approved  of  my  selection  of  the  race  problem  for  discus- 
sion at  this  time  before  the  alumni  of  the  university,  and 
he  added  with  characteristic  broadmindedness :  "I  wish 
my  platform  at  Athens  to  be  a  place  for  the  freest  expres- 
sion of  honest  thought." 

At  the  outset,  we  should  realize  that  if  we  are  to  make 
any  genuine  progress  toward  a  right  solution  of  our  prob- 
lem, we  must  approach  it  in  a  spirit  of  the  utmost  candor, 
and  with  an  eye  single  to  the  ascertainment  of  the  truth. 
The  pessimist  "sailing  the  Vesuvian  Bay"  listens  for  the 
dreaded  rumblings  of  the  distant  mountain — blind  to  the 
wondrous  beauties  of  earth  and  sky  about  him.  The 
optimist  floating  down  the  placid  upper  stream  pictures  to 
himself  an  endless  panorama  of  peaceful  landscapes — deaf 
to  the  thundering  cataract  of  Niagara  just  below  him. 
But  better  than  pessimism  and  better  than  optimism  is 
that  philosophy  which  faces  facts  as  they  are,  and  cour- 
ageously interprets  their  meaning. 

Slavery  and  Christianity. 

In  the  earlier  civilizations  slavery  was  the  rule,  not  the 
exception.  But  with  the  advent  of  the  Christ  and  His 
teachings,  a  silent,  gentle,  yet  all-compelling  force  began 

10 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

its  work  on  the  universal  heart  of  humanity.  Christianity 
adjusted  itself  to  existing  governmental  institutions,  in- 
cluding slavery.  But  it  inculcated  such  lofty  doctrines  of 
love  and  duty,  and  created  such  vivid  conceptions  of  a 
personal  God  and  Father  of  us  all,  that  it  was  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time  when  Christian  peoples  could  not  hold  in 
slavery  those  of  their  own  faith  and  blood. 

In  England  in  1696  the  doctrine  had  obtained  wide 
acceptance  that  Christian  baptism  of  itself  worked  a  legal 
manumission  of  the  slave.  Argument  to  that  effect  was 
urged  by  able  lawyers  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench  in  the 
suit  of  Chamberlain  v.  Herney,  but  the  case  went  off  on 
another  ground,  and  that  point  was  not  decided.  About 
the  same  time,  however,  the  colonies  of  Maryland,  Vir- 
ginia and  South  Carolina  passed  laws  that  Christian  bap- 
tism should  not  free  the  negro  slave,  "any  opinion  or 
matter  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."  Thus  we  see  a 
recognition  of  the  necessity  at  that  period  of  our  history  of 
controlling  by  statutory  enactments  this  expanding  senti- 
ment of  Christian  brotherhood  among  the  masses  of  the 
people,  so  as  to  prevent  it  from  embracing  the  alien  negro 
race. 

The  march  of  Christian  civilization  had  put  an  end  to 
white  slavery,  but  negro  slavery  still  flourished,  chiefly  be- 

11 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

cause  the  negro  was  of  a  different  race-blood  from  his 
masters.  Oneness  in  faith  and  blood  had  grown  to  mean 
freedom  for  the  white  man.  But  oneness  in  faith,  without 
oneness  in  blood,  still  meant  slavery  for  the  negro. 

Indeed,  negro  slavery  as  a  historical  institution  in 
Western  civilization  occupies  a  unique  position  of  its  own. 
It  began  in  the  fifteenth  century  when  white  slavery  had 
practically  ceased.  Most  other  slaveries  were  incidental 
results  of  wars.  Negro  slavery  originated  in  commerce, 
in  trade  and  barter,  and  so  continued  until  it  was  sup- 
pressed. 

Justification  of  Negro  Slavery  Based  on  Race- 
Inferiority. 

When  in  later  years  the  institution  was  summoned  be- 
fore the  bar  of  the  world's  public  opinion,  its  most  logical 
and  profound  defenders  admitted  the  wrongfulness  of  white 
slavery,  but  justified  negro  slavery  on  the  plea  of  the 
natural  inferiority  of  the  negro  race. 

Alexander  Stephens,  then  vice-president  of  the  South- 
ern Confederacy,  in  his  famous  Corner-Stone  Speech  at 
Savannah  in  March,  1861,  said:  "Many  governments 
have  been  founded  upon  the  principle  of  subordination 
and  serfdom  of  certain  classes  of  the  same  race.  Such 
were,  and  are,  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature.     Our  sys- 

12 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

tern  contains  no  such  violation  of  nature's  laws.  With  us, 
all  the  white  race,  however  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  are 
equal  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  Not  so  with  the  negro  ;  sub- 
ordination is  his  place."  *  *  *  *  Referring  to  the 
Confederacy,  he  declared:  "Its  foundations  are  laid,  its 
corner  stone  rests,  upon  the  great  truth  that  the  negro  is 
not  equal  to  the  white  man,  that  slavery — subordination 
to  the  superior  race  —  is  his  natural  and  normal  con- 
dition." 

The  fact  of  race  inequality  here  stated  cannot  well  be 
denied.  But  there  is  still  a  fatal  flaw  in  the  logic.  That 
flaw  lies  in  the  assumption  that  a  superior  race  has  the 
right  to  hold  an  inferior  race  in  slavery.  A  race  can  not 
be  justly  deprived  of  liberty  merely  because  it  is  relatively 
inferior  to  another.  If  so,  all  other  branches  of  the  human 
family  could  justly  be  reduced  to  slavery  by  the  highest, 
most  masterful  branch — and  that  mastery  could  only  be 
determined  by  force  of  arms.  The  obligation  of  the  supe- 
rior to  lead  and  direct  does  not  carry  with  it  the  right  to 
enslave. 

Mr.  Stephens  further  declared  in  his  speech :  "  It  is 
upon  this,  as  I  have  stated,  our  social  fabric  is  firmly 
planted,  and  I  can  not  permit  myself  to  doubt  the  ultimate 

13 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 


success  of  the  full  recognition  of  this  principle  throughout 

the  civilized  and  enlightened  world." 
» 

Here  we  have  one  of  the  ablest  intellects  of  his  day  not 

only  asserting  that  negro  slavery  was  legally  and  morally 
right,  but  predicting  that  its  recognition  would  become 
universal  throughout  the  civilized  world  —  a  prediction 
made  within  five  years  of  its  abolition  in  the  United  States, 
and  within  twenty-seven  years  of  its  abolition  in  Brazil, 
which  marked  the  final  disappearance  of  human  slavery  as 
a  legalized  institution  among  civilized  peoples. 

Let  me  say  in  passing,  that  this  Corner-Stone  speech 
>>  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  authorized  volume  containing  the 
biography  and  speeches  of  Mr.  Stephens.  One  can  scarce- 
ly suppress  the  question :  Did  the  great  commoner  prefer 
for  posterity  to  judge  him  by  other  speeches?  Certain  it 
is,  that  the  views  he  expressed  on  negro  slavery  did  not 
spring  from  hardness  of  heart,  or  want  of  sympathy  with 
any  suffering  creature  on  earth.  At  his  death,  his  negro 
body  servant  in  tearful  accents  pronounced  upon  him  this 
noble  eulogy:  "Mars  Alec  was  kinder  to  dogs  than  most 
men  is  to  folks." 

But  Mr.  Stephens  was  defending  the  then  existing  in- 
stitution of  slavery  handed  down  to  his  people  by  their 

14 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

fathers,  recognized  by  historical  analogies  from  the  Bible, 
and  sanctioned  by  the  Federal  Constitution.  His  moral 
nature  was  uncompromising.  There  was  no  way  to  adjust 
that  moral  nature  to  existing  conditions  except  by  making 
the  assumption,  which  he  did  make,  of  the  right  of  a  supe- 
rior race  to  enslave  an  inferior  race. 

If  race  environment  could  so  warp  the  judgment  of  a 
great  intellect  like  that  of  Alexander  Stephens,  other  men 
may  well  be  cautious  lest  they  miss  the  truth. 

We  need  not  stop  to  discuss  whether  the  North  or 
South  was  the  more  responsible  for  negro  slavery  in 
America.  It  takes  two  to  make  a  bargain.  Northern 
traders  sold  and  Southern  planters  bought.  If  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  was  one  of  the  chief  ports  of  destination 
for  slave  trading  vessels,  Salem,  Massachusetts,  was  one  of 
the  chief  ports  from  whence  those  vessels  sailed. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  the  Southern  colonies  there  were 
many  strong  protests  against  negro  slavery.  But  once 
established  it  continued  to  grow  and  flourish  until  we 
reached  those  unhappy  days  foreshadowed  by  Mr.  Madi- 
son, when  he  said  in  the  constitutional  convention  of  1787 
that  the  real  antagonism  would  not  arise  between  the  large 
States  on  the  one  hand  and  the  small  States  on  the  other, 
as   many  seemed    to   fear,   but  that    "The    institution  of 

15 


? 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

slavery  and  its  consequences  formed  the  line  of  discrim- 
ination." 

Slavery  the  Irritating  Cause  of  the  War. 

No  historian  can  ever  truthfully  assert  that  the  men 
who  bore  the  banner  of  the  Confederacy  in  victory  and  in 
defeat  with  such  matchless  courage  and  heroic  sacrifice 
were  moved  only  by  the  selfish  purpose  of  holding  their 
black  fellowmen  in  bondage.  They  were  inspired  by  the 
noblest  sentiments  of  patriotism.  So  far  from  being  trait- 
ors to  the  Constitution  of  their  fathers,  which  Mr.  Glad- 
stone declared  was  the  "  most  wonderful  work  ever  struck 
off  at  a  given  time  by  the  brain  and  purpose  of  man," 
they  reverenced  that  great  instrument  next  to  the  Bible. 
So  far  from  trampling  it  under  foot,  they  held  it  up  as 
their  shield.  They  appealed  to  the  North  and  West  to 
recognize  the  binding  obligation  of  that  Constitution,  as 
interpreted  by  the  highest  court,  only  to  hear  it  denounced 
at  last  as  "  a  covenant  with  death  and  an  agreement  with 
hell." 

And  yet,  we  must  in  candor  admit  that  the  truthful 
historian  will  write  it  down  that  slavery  was  the  particular 
irritating  cause  that  forced  on  the  conflict  of  arms  between 
the  sections,  though  deeper  causes  lay  at  the  foundation  of 
our  sectional  differences  on  centralization  and  State  rights. 

16 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

When  Robert  Toombs  made  his  memorable  farewell 
speech  in  the  United  States  Senate  on  January  7,  1 861,  he 
laid  down  five  propositions,  setting  forth  the  contentions  of 
the  South,  which,  if  granted,  would  have  averted  disunion. 
Every  one  of  those  five  propositions  was  a  clear  cut,  logi- 
cal deduction  from  the  original  meaning  and  intent  of  the 
Constitution,  and  all  five  of  them  centred  around  the  insti- 
tution of  slavery. 

Again,  when  the  conflict  was  over  and  the  Constitution 
was  amended  at  three  separate  times,  two  of  these  amend- 
ments, the  thirteenth  and  fifteenth,  referred  exclusively  to 
slavery,  and  the  other,  the  fourteenth,  referred  chiefly  to 
slavery.  No  other  historical  facts,  though  there  are  many, 
need  to  be  cited  to  prove  that  slavery  was  the  immediate 
precipitating  cause  of  the  Civil  War. 

The  Thirteenth  Amendment. 
The  thirteenth  amendment,  ratified  in  1865,  abolishing 
slavery,  was  a  legitimate  and  necessary  result  of  the  arbi- 
trament of  the  sword.  Mr.  Lincoln  at  first  declared  that 
the  purpose  of  the  war,  on  the  part  of  the  government,  was 
to  preserve  the  Union  and  not  to  free  the  slaves.  But  the 
progress  of  events  had  rendered  him  powerless  to  confine 
the  struggling  forces  of  social  upheaval  within  that  limita- 

17 


J> 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

tion — even    if    his    personal   views    had    undergone    no 
change. 

Great  was  the  relief  to  many  thoughtful  minds  in  the 
South  when  this  fruitful  cause  of  sectional  contention  had 
been  removed.  In  an  address  delivered  from  this  platform 
in  1 87 1,  Benjamin  H.  Hill  gave  thanks  in  fervid  metaphor 
that  the  "dusky  Helen"  had  left  the  crumbling  walls  of 
Troy,  and  that  Southern  genius,  once  "  bound  like  Prome- 
theus" to  the  rock  of  slavery,  had  been  loosed  from  its 
bonds. 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment. 

The  fourteenth  amendment,  ratified  in  1868,  was  a 
combination  of  judicial  wisdom  in  the  first  section,  of  fruit- 
less compromise  in  the  second  section,  and  of  political 
proscription  in  the  third  section. 

The  first  section  of  this  amendment  must  now  be  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  very  best  parts  of  the  entire  instru- 
ment. It  gave  for  the  first  time  an  authorative  definition 
of  United  States  citizenship,  and  forbade  any  state  to 
abridge  the  privileges  of  such  citizens  or  to  deprive  any 
person  of  life,  liberty  or  property  without  due  process  of 
law,  or  to  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the 
equal  protection  of  the  laws.  We  had  lived  nearly  three- 
quarters   of  a  century  under  a  government  that  had  no 

18 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

constitutional  or  statutory  definition  of  its  own  citizenship, 
and  with  no  sufficient  jurisdiction  in  its  courts  to  give  ade- 
quate protection  to  the  equal  rights  now  attaching  to  that 
citizenship. 

What  constituted  one  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
had  long  been  a  subject  of  discussion  in  the  public  jour- 
nals, in  the  executive  departments  and  in  the  courts.  The 
Supreme  Court,  in  the  Dred  Scott  case  in  1857,  decided 
that  a  person  of  African  descent,  whether  slave  or  free, 
was  not,  and  could  not  be  a  citizen  of  a  State  or  of  the 
United  States.  That  decision  was,  of  course,  superceded 
by  the  fourteenth  amendment. 

This  first  section  was  profound  in  its  wisdom  and  far- 
reaching  in  its  effect  upon  the  rights  of  life,  liberty  and 
property,  not  only  of  blacks  but  of  whites.  That  eminent 
Southern  jurist,  the  Hon.  Hannis  Taylor,  referring  specially 
to  this  section,  has  well  said:  "From  a  purely  scientific 
point  of  view  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  never 
reached  its  logical  completion  until  after  the  adoption  of 
the  fourteenth  amendment." 

The  omission  from  the  original  Constitution  of  a  defi- 
nition of  United  States  citizenship  and  of  a  distinct  provi- 
sion against  State  encroachment  on  equal  rights  attaching 
thereto,  carried  with  it  a  deep  significance. 

19 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

Few  facts  in  our  history  point  more  unerringly  to  the 
conclusion  that  in  the  minds  of  the  framers  of  that  instru- 
ment, the  paramount  allegiance  of  the  citizen  was  to  his 
State,  and  not  to  the  United  States.  It  was  this  sense  of 
duty  which  properly  constrained  Lee  and  other  lovers  of 
the  Union  to  surrender  their  high  commissions  in  the 
Federal  army  and  cast  their  fortunes  with  their  own  seced- 
ing States.  Happily,  the  future  holds  for  us  no  possibility 
of  the  recurrence  of  that  divided  allegiance. 

Historically,  under  the  Constitution,  the  South  was 
right,  both  as  to  slavery  and  secession,  but  the  simple 
truth  is  that  public  opinion  on  those  two  subjects  had  out- 
grown the  Constitution. 

No  man  contributed  more  to  the  development  of  pub- 
lic opinion  against  disunion  than  did  Mr.  Webster.  When 
he  made  his  great  speech  in  1830  in  reply  to  Mr.  Hayne 
closing  with  that  matchless  tribute  to  the  Union  flag: 
"  The  broad  ensign  of  the  Republic,  now  known  and  hon- 
ored throughout  the  world,  still  full  high  advanced"  —  he 
created  and  vitalized  and  electrified  Union  sentiment 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  That 
speech,  more  than  the  word  or  deed  of  any  other  one  man, 
prepared  the  way  for  the  coming  of  Lincoln,  and  made 
possible  the  vast  armies  of  Grant.     After  all,  should  not 

20 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

Webster  be  given  first  place  in  the  Hall  of  Fame  dedicated 
to  Saviors  of  the  Union? 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment. 

The  fifteenth  amendment,  ratified  in  1872,  prohibited 
the  United  States  or  any  State,  in  prescribing  suffrage 
qualifications,  from  discriminating  against  citizens  of  the 
United  States  on  account  of  race,  color  or  previous  condi- 
tion of  servitude.  It  did  not  confer  the  ballot  upon  any 
one  —  it  only  prohibited  discrimination  on  account  of  a 
specified  difference.  The  right  to  vote  is  not  a  privilege 
or  attribute  of  national  citizenship  under  either  the  four- 
teenth or  fifteenth  amendment;  but  the  right  to  be  ex- 
empt from  discrimination  in  voting  on  account  of  race  is 
an  attribute  of  national  citizenship  under  the  fifteenth 
amendment. 

This  amendment  was  at  the  time  of  its  adoption  a 
doubtful  and  dangerous  experiment — but  once  made,  it  is 
beyond  recall. 

It  embodied  a  distinct  addition  to  the  principle  set  out 
in  the  second  section  to  the  fourteenth  amendment,  which 
latter  impliedly  permitted  a  State  to  deny  the  ballot  to  the 
negro  if  it  were  willing  to  suffer  the  penalty  of  a  propor- 
tionate reduction  of  representation  in  the  lower  house  of 
Congress. 

21 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

So  far  as  the  negro  is  concerned,  the  second  section  of 
the  fourteenth  amendment  was  a  political  compromise 
against  him,  while  the  fifteenth  amendment  was  a  com- 
plete declaration  of  his  equal  suffrage  rights. 

A  resolution  for  a  fourteenth  amendment,  in  almost 
the  identical  words  finally  used  in  this  second  section  in 
1868,  had  been  up  for  discussion  in  the  Senate  as  early  as 
1866.  Charles  Sumner  then  denounced  it  as  "a  compro- 
mise of  human  rights,  the  most  immoral,  indecent  and 
utterly  shameful  of  any  in  our  history." 

Mr.  Blaine,  in  his  book,  "Twenty  Years  in  Congress," 
took  the  position  that  the  enactment  of  the  fifteenth 
amendment  operated  as  a  practical  repeal  of  the  second 
section  of  the  fourteenth  amendment.  He  says :  "  Before 
the  adoption  of  the  fifteenth  amendment,  if  a  State  should 
exclude  the  negro  from  suffrage  the  next  step  would  be 
for  Congress  to  exclude  the  negro  from  the  basis  of  appor- 
tionment. After  the  adoption  of  the  fifteenth  amendment, 
if  a  State  should  exclude  the  negro  from  suffrage,  the  next 
step  would  be  for  the  Supreme  Court  to  declare  the  act 
was  unconstitutional  and  therefore  null  and  void." 

Some  latter-day  statesmen,  who  have  introduced  bills 
in  Congress  to  reduce  Southern  representation,  do  not 
seem  to  agree  with  Mr.  Blaine. 

22 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

Verily,  if  the  party  of  Sumner  should  ever  abandon  the 
vindication  of  the  fifteenth  amendment  by  substituting  for 
it  the  compromise  of  the  fourteenth  amendment,  the  shade 
of  that  eminent  statesman  would  surely  be  moved  to  indig- 
nation and  contempt — if  it  still  concerns  itself  with  mun- 
dane political  affairs.  Such  a  substitute-compromise  now 
could  bring  no  good  to  either  whites  or  blacks  of  the 
South.  It  would  work  evil  and  evil  only. 
Some  Reasons  for  Adopting  the  Fifteenth  Amendment. 

The  fifteenth  amendment  was  naturally  received  with 
much  bitterness  by  the  white  people  of  the  South,  because 
many  of  them  interpreted  it  to  mean  that  our  political 
enemies  of  the  North,  who  held  control  of  the  government, 
intended  thereby  to  doom  the  South  to  perpetual  negro 
domination. 

No  doubt  many  of  such  advocates  were  moved  by  pre- 
judice and  hate,  but  we  of  the  South,  in  this  day,  must  not 
blind  ourselves  to  the  fact  that  this  amendment  was  advo- 
cated by  some  men  then  in  public  life  who  were  not  con- 
trolled by  such  base  motives,  but  were  patriotically  striving 
to  settle  a  great  fundamental  question  of  government  on 
an  enduring  basis. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  when  Congress  passed  the  joint 
resolution  submitting  the  fifteenth  amendment  to  the  States 

23 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

for  adoption,  the  negroes  had  already  been  made  citizens 
of  the  United  States  by  the  fourteenth  amendment,  and  it 
was  impossible  to  conjoin  that  status  of  citizenship  with  a 
total  exclusion  of  the  negro  race  from  the  ballot  without 
undermining  some  of  the  foundation  principles  of  our 
representative   Republic. 

Bear  in  mind,  also,  that  at  the  time  when  Congress 
acted  on  that  resolution  in  1869,  the  negro  had  already 
exercised  the  right  of  suffrage  under  the  reconstruction 
acts  of  Congress,  beginning  in  1867.  It  was  not  under  the 
fifteenth  amendment,  but  under  the  prior  reconstruction 
acts,  that  the  negroes  cast  their  first  ballots. 

So  that  the  issue  then  was,  not  whether  to  give  the 
negroes  something  they  had  never  possessed,  but  whether 
to  deny  them  in  the  future  a  privilege  they  had  already 
actually  enjoyed. 

The  Southern  States  were  expecting  soon  to  be  re- 
stored to  political  autonomy.  What  stand  would  the 
white  people  of  those  States  take  as  to  the  rights  of  their 
former  slaves?  To  what  extremes  of  pillage  and  slaughter 
might  not  the  millions  of  negroes  go  under  fear  of  partial 
or  total  re-enslavement?  These  and  other  questions  were 
hard  to  answer.  To  whatever  point  of  the  political  hori- 
zon the  thoughtful  patriot  turned  his  gaze,  the  clouds  were 

24 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

dark  and  portentous.  A  crisis  was  at  hand.  It  had  to  be 
met. 

Giving  the  ballot  to  five  million  of  newly-freed  slaves, 
of  an  inferior  or  backward  race,  ignorant,  unaccustomed  to 
do  or  think  for  themselves,  could  not  have  been  the  delib- 
erate act  of  wise  statesmanship,  but  only  the  choice  of 
what  seemed  to  be  the  lesser  of  two  evils.  In  truth,  the 
whole  plan  seems  to  have  been  an  effort  not  only  to  oblit- 
erate at  once,  as  with  a  stroke  of  the  pen,  all  distinctions 
imposed  by  law,  but  to  ignore  all  distinctions  imposed  by 
nature. 

Many  thoughtful  men  at  the  North  are  now  of  the 
opinion  that  it  would  have  been  far  better  had  the  military 
control  in  the  South  been  continued  and  the  ballot 
withheld  for  a  time,  at  least,  from  the  freed  man,  and 
finally  bestowed  upon  them  by  degrees.  But  that  is  a 
dead  issue  now. 

As  a  practical  measure  of  procedure,  the  fifteenth 
amendment  was  in  many  respects  harsh  and  cruel  toward 
the  white  people  of  the  South,  but  theoretically  it  was 
necessary  to  round  out  the  Constitution  of  a  representative 
Republic,  based  on  that  equality  of  citizenship  before  the 
law  which  had  already  been  foreshadowed  by  the  thir- 
teenth   and  fourteenth  amendments. 

25 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

We  may  well  thank  God  that  the  South  has  recovered 

from  the  immediate  shock  of    these    rough   post-bellum 

operations  in  political  surgery.     In  comparison  to  the  past 

— with  its  civil  war  and  its  reconstruction — the  future  can 

hold  no  terrors  for  us.     Only  let  us  act  with  wisdom  and 

not  lose  what  we  have  gained  through  our  suffering. 

Any  Future  Suffrage  Amendment  Will  Increase  Power 
of  Congress. 

The  fifteenth  amendment  may,  by  negative  acquies- 
cence of  the  American  people,  become  for  a  time  a  dead 
letter,  but  that  three-fourths  of  the  forty-five  or  more 
States  will  ever  affirmatively  repeal  it  for  the  purpose  of 
allowing  five  or  six  Southern  States  to  withhold  from  our 
negro  citizens,  as  a  race,  the  right  to  the  ballot,  is,  to  my 
mind,  an  hallucination  too  extreme  for  serious  consider- 
ation. 

If  these  post-bellum  amendments  of  the  Constitution 
bearing  upon  slavery  shall  ever  be  altered  by  future 
amendments,  the  alteration  will  be  in  the  direction  of 
placing  under  Federal  control  the  entire  subject  of  suf- 
frage qualifications  in  all  National  and  State  elections. 
The  unmistakable  trend  of  our  political  and  social  develop- 
ment from  the  beginning  of  the  government  has  been 
toward  the  centre,  not  away  from  it.    The  centripetal  force 

26 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

has  been  stronger  than  the  centrifugal  force.  Under  a  law 
of  social  gravitation  all  the  parts  have  been  drawn  more 
intimately  into  one  national  unity. 

To  suppose  that  this  national  authority  would  of  its 
own  accord  emasculate  itself  and  surrender  its  own  present 
consolidated  power  back  to  the  former  diverse  elements 
from  which  it  was  wrested,  would  be  to  reverse  every 
record  of  political  history,  and  to  ignore  every  lesson  of 
political  philosophy. 

Indeed,  when  the  resolution  for  the  fifteenth  amend- 
ment was  under  discussion  in  the  Senate  in  1869,  an 
amendment  to  that  resolution  was  offered  to  confer  upon 
Congress  the  full  power  to  prescribe  the  qualifications  for 
voters  and  officeholders,  both  in  the  States  and  in  the 
United  States. 

It  was  not  adopted  then  because  the  time  was  not  ripe. 
But  we  may  accept  it  to  be  as  certain  as  any  future  move- 
ment of  this  kind  can  be,  that  if  the  Constitution  shall  be 
amended  on  the  subject  of  the  suffrage  that  amendment 
will  not  restore  lost  power  to  the  States,  but  will  confer 
more  power  on  the  National  government.  The  less  we 
agitate  it  the  better. 

Numerical  Relation  of  Races. 

We   have    now  reached   the  stage    in  our  discussion 

27 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

where  we  may  best  consider  what  is,  to  my  mind,  the  most 
important  factor  in  our  problem,  namely,  the  numerical 
relation  of  the  whites  and  the  blacks  of  the  Southern 
States.  Having  the  advantage  in  land-holdings  and  all 
other  fonjis  of  wealth,  in  intellect,  in  racial  pride  and 
strength,  our  white  supremacy  can  never  be  overthrown 
except  by  force  of  numbers.  For  many  years  after  the 
war  we  could  not  rid  ourselves  of  the  apprehension  that  at 
some  day  in  the  future  we  might  be  borne  down  by  numer- 
ical majorities.  These  fears  were  not  wholly  unfounded  at 
that  time. 

In  slavery,  under  the  fostering  care,  as  well  as  the 
commercial  interest  of  the  master,  the  negroes  multiplied 
in  a  greater  ratio  than  the  whites.  What  effect  would  the 
new  social  order  of  freedom  have  on  that  ratio  of  increase? 
Was  the  Caucasian  race  of  the  South  face  to  face  with  a 
pitiless  force  that  might  gradually  but  inevitably  over- 
whelm it  by  sheer  weight  of  numbers?  If  so,  would  that 
race  yield,  or  would  it  adopt  extreme  measures  for  self- 
preservation?  These  were  momentous  and  perturbing 
questions. 

The  census  of  1870,  coming  first  after  the  war,  could 
give  very  little  basis  for  deduction  of  any  sort.  But  when 
the  census  figures  of  1880  were  made  known  and  were 

28 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

compared  with  those  of  1870,  that  comparison  revealed  a 
most  ominous  situation.  Three  States,  South  Carolina, 
Mississippi  and  Louisiana,  each  had  at  that  time  an  actual 
black  majority,  and  the  per  cent  of  gain  for  the  negroes  in 
the  Southern  group  of  States,  as  shown  by  the  statistical 
experts,  was  far  in  excess  of  that  of  the  whites,  being  34.3, 
as  against  27.5  per  cent  from  all  sources. 

Judge  Tourgee's  Prophecies  Not  Fulfilled. 

Judge  Albion  W.  Tourgee,  in  his  book,  "An  Appeal 
to  Caesar,"  published  in  1884,  declared  that  in  the  year 
1900  every  State  between  Maryland  and  Texas  would 
have  a  black  majority. 

Time  has  exposed  the  falsity  of  that  prediction.  Not 
one  of  those  States  between  Maryland  and  Texas  that  had 
a  white  majority  in  1880  had  lost  it  in  1900.  On  the  con- 
trary, every  such  State  increased  its  white  majority,  while 
South  Carolina,  from  1890  to  1900,  reduced  her  negro 
majority  by  2,412,  and  Louisiana  in  the  same  period 
changed  a  negro  majority  of  798  into  a  white  majority  of 
78,818. 

The  white  majority  in  the  ten  distinctively  Southern 
States  was  increased  by  1,002,662  from  1890  to  1900.  In 
the  same  period  our  white  majority  in  Georgia  rose  from 

29 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

119,542  to  146,481.  In  every  Southern  State,  except 
Mississippi,  where  peculiar  conditions  prevailed,  the  mar- 
gin of  safety  for  white  supremacy,  even  on  the  basis  of 
numbers,  has  increased. 

These  predictions  of  negro  majorities  were  not  confined 
to  writers  of  fiction,  like  Judge  Tourgee.  Professor  Gil- 
liam, a  statistician  of  high  repute,  announced  that  among 
the  whites  of  the  old  slave  States  the  rate  of  natural  in- 
crease from  1870  to  1880  was  20  per  cent,  while  that  of 
the  blacks  in  the  same  States  was  35  per  cent. 

With  these  figures  as  a  basis  he  reached  the  conclusion 
that  the  6,000,000  of  Southern  blacks  in  1880  would  in- 
crease to  12,000,000  in  1900.  But  when  the  census  takers 
of  1900  had  counted  every  colored  man,  woman  and  child 
in  the  whole  United  States,  the  total  footed  up  only  8,383,- 
994,  which  is  3,616,006  less  than  the  professor  had  pre- 
dicted would  be  found  in  the  Southern  States  alone. 

Judge  Tourgee,  using  these  percentages,  given  by  Pro- 
fessor Gilliam,  argued  that  all  the  conditions  pointed  to  a 
greater  discrepancy  in  the  future. 

But  the  census  of  1 900  shows  that  the  rate  of  increase 
of  the  blacks  in  the  South  Atlantic  States,  where  the  con- 
ditions are  most  favorable,  was  only  14.3  per  cent  from 
1890  to   1900,  instead  of  35   per  cent,  as  reported  for  a 

30 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

previous  decade,  while  that  of  the  whites  stood   substan- 
tially at  its  previous  record  of  20  per  cent. 

It  is  now  an  accepted  fact  that  the  census  of  1870  did 
not  give  a  complete  enumeration  of  the  negroes  in  the 
South,  and  this  deficiency,  by  comparison  with  the  more 
accurate  census  of  1880,  necessarily  showed  a  greater  pro- 
portionate increase  among  the  negroes  than  among  the 
whites.  It  was  this  error  in  figures  that  lead  to  all  these 
unfounded  predictions,  which  for  a  time  hung  like  a  pall 
over  the  South. 

Margin  of  Safety  for  White  Supremacy  Steadily 
Increasing. 

But  the  census  figures  of  1890  and  1900  supplied  the 
necessary  data  for  a  correct  comparison.  The  resulting 
demonstration  was  that  instead  of  the  whites  of  the  South 
being  overwhelmed  with  a  deluge  of  negroes,  the  certainty 
of  continued  white  supremacy  has  steadily  increased  with 
every  decade. 

One  cause  of  this  comparative  decline  of  the  negroes 
in  numbers  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  they  have  no 
source  of  supply  from  immigration,  while  the  whites  are 
receiving  constant  accessions  from  other  States  and  from 
foreign  countries.  This  influx  of  whites,  comparatively 
small  at  present,  will  undoubtedly  continue  and  become 

31 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

larger  with  our  growing  industrial  prosperity,  which  was 
never  on  so  firm  a  foundation  as  now.  The  completion  of 
the  Panama  canal  will  accelerate  the  development  of  our 
resources  and  give  new  impetus  to  white  immigration,  and 
thus  help  vastly  in  the  solution  of  our  problem. 

A  second  cause  of  this  comparative  decline  is  that  the 
death  rate  among  the  negroes  is  abnormally  high.  In 
typical  Southern  cities,  where  the  death  rate  among  the 
whites  stands  at  the  moderate  figures  of  10  to  12  per 
thousand,  it  reaches  among  the  negroes  from  20  to  25  per 
thousand. 

It  has  recently  been  asserted  by  some  supposedly  com- 
petent authorities  that  the  death  rate  of  the  negroes  is  now 
probably  in  excess  of  their  birth  rate,  so  that  an  actual 
numerical  decrease  has  set  in,  owing  largely  to  the  ravages 
of  consumption  and  certain  other  diseases.  Nature  exacts 
obedience  to  her  laws — she  knows  neither  pity  nor  re- 
venge. 

Professor  Wilcox  of  Cornell  University  and  Professor  % 
Smith  of  Tulane  University,  and  others,  have  undertaken  a 
more  far-reaching  investigation  into  the  census  figures  and 
the  facts  of  ethnological  history,  and  have  deduced  there- 
from the  conclusion  that  "the  negroes  will  continue  to  be 
a  steadily  smaller  proportion  of  our  population,"  and  that 

32 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

in  the  course  of  time  they  will  die  out  in  America  from 
inherent  and  natural  causes. 

Whether  these  extreme  speculations — for  they  are 
speculations — are  well  founded  or  not,  yet  the  established 
facts  as  to  the  relative  increase  of  the  races  have  a  most 
important  bearing  on  the  solution  of  our  problem.  They 
show  that  this  problem  is  not  near  so  difficult  as  it  was 
supposed  to  be  twenty  years  ago,  when  false  prophets  were 
predicting  white  submergence. 

And  more  important  still,  these  facts  show  that  the 
white  people  of  the  South,  and  especially  of  the  State  of 
Georgia,  can  now  proceed  to  work  out  their  racial  problem 
on  lines  of  justice  to  the  negro,  without  imperilling  white 
supremacy.  Those  fears  which  once  appalled  us,  we  may 
now  dismiss,  and  let  reason  resume  its  sway. 

If  future  years  should  develop  enough  race  pride  in  the 
negroes  to  make  them  concentrate  in  one  locality,  they 
might  gain  ascendency  there  and  give  the  world  a  prac- 
tical demonstration  of  their  capacity  or  incapacity  as  a 
race-force  in  civilization.  But  we  see  no  clear  signs  of 
such  a  movement  now,  and  Georgia,  at  least,  is  in  no 
danger  of  being  chosen  as  the  Canaan  for  that  sort  of  an 

experiment. 

A  Working  Plan  of  Justice. 

In  seeking  a  solution  of  any  difficult  problem,  the  first 

33 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

step  should  be  to  eliminate  the  impossible  schemes  pro- 
posed, and  then  concentrate  on  some  line  of  operation  that 
is  at  least  possible.  We  often  hear  the  epigrammatic  dic- 
tum that  there  are  but  three  possible  solutions  of  our  race 
problem :  deportation,  assimilation  or  annihilation.  When 
we  bring  our  sober  senses  to  bear,  all  three  of  these  so- 
called  possibilities  appear  to  be  practical  impossibilities. 
Not  one  of  the  three  presents  a  working  hypothesis.  Phys- 
ical facts,  alone,  prevent  deportation.  Physical  facts, 
stressed  by  an  ineradicable  race  pride,  bar  the  way  against 
assimilation.  Physical  facts,  backed  by  our  religion,  our 
civilization,  our  very  selves,  forbid  annihilation.  We  can 
not  imitate  Herod. 

This  much  seems  clear,  beyond  doubt,  that  the  whites 
are  going  to  stay  in  this  Southland  for  all  time,  and  so  are 
the  negroes  going  to  stay  here  in  greater  or  less  propor- 
tions for  generations  to  come.  If,  then,  both  races  are  to 
remain  together,  the  plainly  sensible  thing  for  statesmen  of 
this  day  to  do  is  to  devise  the  best  modus  vivendi,  or 
working  plan,  by  which  the  greatest  good  can  be  accomp- 
lished for  ourselves  and  our  posterity.  We  of  this  day  are 
not  expected  to  overload  ourselves  with  the  burden  of 
settling  all  the  problems  of  all  future  ages.  If  we  take 
good  care  of  the  next  few  centuries,  we  may  well  be  con- 

34 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

tent  to  leave  some  matters  to  be  attended  to  by  our  remote 
posterity — aided,  of  course,  by  Providence. 

Over  against  that  Trinity  of  impossibilities — deporta- 
tion, assimilation  or  annihilation — let  us  offer  the  simple 
plan  of  justice. 

The  first  and  absolutely  essential  factor  in  any  working 
hypothesis  at  the  South,  so  far  as  human  ken  can  now 
foresee,  is  white  supremacy — supremacy  arising  from  pres- 
ent natural  superiority,  but  based  always  on  justice  to  the 
negro. 

Those  whose  stock  in  trade  is  "hating  the  nigger"  may 
easily  gain  some  temporary  advantage  for  themselves  in 
our  white  primaries,  where  it  requires  no  courage,  either 
physical  or  moral,  to  strike  those  who  have  no  power  to 
strike  back — not  even  with  a  paper  ballot.  But  these 
men  will  achieve  nothing  permanent  for  the  good  of  the 
State  or  of  the  nation  by  stirring  up  race  passion  and 
prejudice.  Injustice  and  persecution  will  not  solve  any  of 
the  problems  of  the  ages.  God  did  not  so  ordain  His 
universe. 

Justly  proud  of  our  race,  we  refuse  to  amalgamate  with 
the  negro.  Nevertheless,  the  negro  is  a  human  being, 
under  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  and  consequently  within  the 
Brotherhood  of  Man — for  those  two  relations  are  insep- 

35 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

arably  joined  together.    All  soul-possessing  creatures  must 
be  sons  of  God,  and  joint  heirs  of  immortality. 

Moreover,  the  negro  is  an  American  citizen,  and  is 
protected  as  such,  by  guarantees  of  the  Constitution  that 
are  as  irrepealable  almost  as  the  Bill  of  Rights  itself.  Nor, 
if  such  a  thing  as  repealing  these  guarantees  were  possible, 
would  it  be  wise  for  the  South.  Suppose  we  admit  the 
oft  re-iterated  proposition  that  no  two  races  so  distinct  as 
the  Caucasian  and  the  negro  can  live  together  on  terms  of 
perfect  equality ;  yet  it  is  equally  true  that  without  some 
access  to  the  ballot,  present  or  prospective,  some  partici- 
pation in  the  government,  no  inferior  race  in  an  elective 
Republic  could  long  protect  itself  against  reduction  to 
slavery  in  many  of  its  substantial  forms — and  God  knows 
the  South  wants  no  more  of  that  curse. 

We  have  long  passed  the  crisis  of  the  disease  brought 
on  by  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  blood  of  the  Repub- 
lic. Let  us  now  build  up  the  body  politic  in  health  and 
strength,  and  guard  it  against  ever  again  being  inoculated 
with  a  poison  even  remotely  resembling  that  deadly  virus. 
Sporadic  cases  of  peonage  have  already  developed  in  sev- 
eral States  and  have  been  suppressed.  Let  us  provide 
against  every  appearance  of  contagion. 

Race  Pride  Versus  Race  Prejudice. 

One  of  the  most  serious  difficulties  about  the  solution 

36 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

of  our  problem  is  to  be  found  in  getting  the  dominant 
whites  of  the  South  to  draw  a  proper  discrimination  be- 
tween a  laudable  pride  in  our  race,  and  an  unworthy  preju- 
dice against  the  negro  race.  Prejudice  of  any  sort  is 
hostile  to  that  sound  judgment  which  the  Creator  gave  us 
for  our  guide.  Race  prejudice  presents  this  disturbing 
element  in  one  of  its  most  unreasoning  forms.  In  violence 
it  ranks  next  to  religious  fanaticism.  The  one  is  based  on 
a  supposed  duty  to  God ;  the  other  on  a  supposed  duty  to 
one's  race-blood.  The  deeper  this  sense  of  duty,  the  more 
hardened  the  mind  against  every  appeal  to  reason.  In 
persecuting  the  early  Christians,  Paul  thought  he  was  do- 
ing his  duty  to  God.  The  men  who  burned  the  witches  in 
New  England  thought  they  were  doing  their  duty. 

So,  perhaps,  may  think  that  ex-preacher,  who  in  our 
own  day  has  turned  playwright,  and  calling  to  his  aid  all 
the  accessories  of  the  stage  and  all  the  realisms  of  the  liv- 
ing drama,  seeks  to  fan  into  flame  the  fiercest  passions  of 
the  whites  and  blacks.  His  chief  purpose,  so  far  as  one 
can  logically  deduce  it,  seems  to  be  to  force  into  immedi- 
ate conflagration  combustible  materials,  which  his  heated 
imagination  tells  him  must  burn  sometime  in  the  future. 
Apparently  he  chafes  under  the   delay  of   Providence  in 

bringing  on  the  ghastly  spectacle,  and  yearns  to  witness 

J 
37 


..  U  t'Vr\ 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

with  his  own  eyes  in  the  flesh  that  reign  of  hell  on  earth 
before  his  own  redeemed  soul  is  ushered  into  the  calm, 
serene  and  gentle  presence  of  Him  whose  gospel  of  love 
and  light  he  once  preached  to  erring  men. 

If  the  true  purpose  of  this  reverend  gentleman  be  to 
preserve  the  blood  of  our  race  in  its  purity  by  creating  a 
sentiment  against  intermarriage  of  the  whites  and  blacks, 
let  him  confine  his  play  to  Chicago  and  Boston  and  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  and  other  like  places,  where  some 
few  of  such  marriages  are  said  to  occur.  As  for  us  in  the 
South,  we  need  no  artificial  stimulant  to  arouse  our  people 
against  that  sort  of  racial  intermarriage.  Our  law  forbids 
it,  and  that  is  one  law  no  man  or  woman  ever  violates. 
Race  Purity. 

In  this  connection  let  us  of  the  South  realize  the  hard 
fact  that  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  preservation  of  the 
purity  of  the  blood  of  our  race,  about  which  we  hear  so 
much  in  this  day,  was  removed  when  slavery  was  abol- 
ished. That  institution,  as  indisputable  facts  too  plainly 
show,  wrought  much  contamination  of  Caucasian  blood. 

In  Virginia  in  1630  a  white  man-servant  was  publicly 
flogged  for  consorting  with  a  negro  slave,  and  was  re- 
quired to  make  public  confession  of  his  guilt  on  the  follow- 

38 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

ing  Sabbath — but  clearly  the  custom  of  flogging  for  that 
offense  must  soon  have  fallen  into  "  innocuous  desuetude." 

In  calmly  considering  now  the  situation  that  confronted 
our  statesmen  of  the  ante-bellum  period,  that  which  most 
astounds  us  is  their  apparent  failure  to  foresee  what  would 
have  been  the  inevitable  consequence  of  an  indefinite 
continuance  of  slavery  in  its  effect  on  race  purity  and  on 
relative  race  numbers.  The  ratio  of  increase  of  the  ne- 
groes was  far  in  excess  of  the  whites.  The  great  laboring 
middle  class,  which  forms  the  backbone  of  every  nation's 
pluck  and  power,  was  fast  migrating  Westward,  and  the 
remaining  population  was  rapidly  crystalizing  into  an 
upper  class  of  white  slave  holders  and  a  lower  class  of 
negro  slaves— the  latter  out-multiplying  their  masters  in 
numbers.  Another  one  hundred  years  of  slavery  would  in 
all  probability  have  doomed  the  South  to  absolute  negro 
domination  by  mere  weight  of  numbers  whenever  emanci- 
pation should  come  —  and  come  it  was  sure  to  do  at  some 
time  in  the  evolution  of  the  elemental  forces  that  were  at 
work. 

If  there  be  a  Providence  who  watches  over  the  affairs 
of  nations  and  "  slumbers  not  nor  sleeps,"  we  may  say  in 
all  reverence  that  he  would  have  made  an  almost  inex- 


39 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

disable  blunder  if  he  had  delayed  much  longer  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery. 

Social  recognition  of  the  true  dignity  of  labor,  which  is 
so  necessary  to  the  growth  of  a  vigorous  and  self-respect- 
ing middle  class,  could  not  be  maintained  in  the  presence 
of  slavery  where  manual  toil  is  so  generally  regarded  as  a 
badge  of  servitude. 

Negro  Race  Projected  Forward  Beyond  Natural 
Development. 

When  a  subject  people  in  the  hard  school  of  experi- 
ence gradually  assert  themselves  and  evolve  from  within 
the  physical,  mental  and  spiritual  forces  that  achieve  their 
freedom,  as  did  the  Anglo-Saxons  from  under  the  yoke  of 
their  Norman  conquerors,  they  come  forth  by  natural 
growth  prepared  for  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  self- 
government. 

But  the  negro  as  a  race  had  undergone  no  such  pro- 
cess of  evolution.  His  transportation  from  Africa  to 
America  and  his  transition  from  slavery  to  freedom  were 
both  the  results  of  external  impositions  and  not  of  internal 
development.  The  power  came  from  without,  not  from 
within.  He  did  not  win  his  freedom.  It  was  bestowed 
upon  him. 

Granting  that  he  is  only  a  backward  member  of  the 

40 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE   PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

great  human  family,  which  as  most  evolutionists  and 
Christians  believe,  is  moving  steadily  on  toward  the  distant 
goal  of  Millennial  perfection,  yet  we  cannot  fail  to  see  that 
the  negro  race  was  suddenly  projected  forward  into  a  stage 
of  civilization  many  generations  in  advance  of  its  own 
natural  development. 

Is  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  the  negro  as  a  race  should 
not  be  altogether  fitted  to  the  laws  and  customs  and  politi- 
cal institutions  of  those  among  whom  his  lot  was  cast? 

Again,  is  it  any  wonder  that  this  advanced  civilization 
should  find  it  necessary  at  times  to  apply  sterner  penalties 
for  the  curbing  of  his  savage  instincts  when  he  was  freed 
from  the  accustomed  control  of  his  master? 

Unfortunately,  soon  after  emancipation,  some  of  the 
worst  specimens  of  the  blacks  began  to  commit  an  unpar- 
donable crime.  Instantly  the  white  man  placed  over  the 
door  of  his  home,  whether  it  were  proud  mansion  or  hum- 
ble cabin,  a  warning  more  terrible  in  its  meaning  than  that 
which  Dante  dreamed  he  saw  over  the  gateway  to  hell : 
"Let  the  brute  who  enters  here  leave  all  hope  behind." 
In  the  presence  of  that  crime,  men  do  not  think,  they  only 
feel. 

But  how  shall  we  fix  bounds  for  those  who  rush  madly 
outside  the  limits  of  the  law?     Lynching  began  with  this 

41 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

and  similar  savage  crimes.  But,  alas,  where  will  they  all 
end  ?  Let  us  hope  that  these  excesses  of  both  races  are 
merely  incidental  factors  in  our  problem,  and  that  they  will 
soon  diminish  and  eventually  disappear. 

Abhorrent  as  are  the  crimes  of  some  degenerate  mem- 
bers of  the  negro  race,  we  Southern  people  can  never  for- 
get the  simple  faith  and  tragic  loyalty  of  those  thousands 
of  slaves  who  guarded  and  protected  the  women  and  chil- 
dren at  home,  while  the  men  were  at  the  front  fighting  to 
drive  back  an  invading  foe  whose  victory  meant  freedom 
to  those  slaves  themselves. 

Negro  Military  Salute  Confederate  Monument. 

Nor  is  there  a  total  dearth  of  touching  incidents  in 
these  latter  days.  Only  about  a  year  or  so  ago,  a  negro 
military  company  from  Savannah  came  marching  in  full 
array  up  Broadway  in  Augusta.  In  front  of  them,  rising 
toward  the  sky  in  beautiful,  artistic  proportions,  stood  a 
marble  monument  erected  by  loving  women  to  the  dead 
Confederacy.  At  its  base  were  statues  of  Lee  and  Jackson 
and  Cobb  and  Walker,  and  lifted  high  up  above  them  all 
on  the  top  of  the  towering  shaft  stood  the  statue  of  a  pri- 
vate Confederate  soldier.  No  white  military  company,  no 
camp  of  maimed  Confederate  veterans  ever  pass  that 
monument  without  giving  it  the  honor  of  a  formal  salute. 

42 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

As  the  negro  military  comes  nearer,  one  of  two  gentle- 
tlemen  standing  in  the  doorway  of  a  building  nearby  says : 
"  Let  us  watch  now  and  see  if  those  fellows  will  salute  the 
Confederate  monument."  The  other  gentleman  explains 
that  no  salute  will  be  given  because  it  will  not  occur  to  the 
commanding  officer,  but  that  the  omission  will  not  be  in- 
tended as  an  affront.  Scarcely  are  the  words  spoken, 
when  the  negro  captain,  in  clear,  ringing  tones  that  prove 
the  sincerity  of  his  tribute,  gives  the  command  to  salute, 
and  every  black  arm  instantly  obeys  that  command. 

There  was  cheering  among  the  white  bystanders. 

When  the  great  Wade  Hampton  lay  upon  his  death 
bed  he  made  this  prayer:  "God  bless  all  my  people  — 
white  and  black  —  God  bless  them  all." 

Suffrage  Qualifications. 

While  the  issue  of  political  control  under  the  fifteenth 
amendment  still  confronted  the  Southern  States,  Missis- 
sippi, having  the  greatest  negro  majority,  led  off  with  her 
Constitution  of  1891  providing  an  educational  qualification 
for  voting.  There  being  more  illiterate  blacks  than  illiter- 
ate whites  in  Mississippi,  the  necessary  effect  of  this  law 
was  to  promote  white  supremacy.  But  the  law  on  its  face 
did  not  discriminate  against  the  negro  on  account  of  his 
race.     It  covered  whites  and  blacks  alike. 

43 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  promptly  de- 
cided that  this  Mississippi  law  did  not  violate  the  Federal 
Constitution.  What  the  effect  of  its  practical  administra- 
tion has  been  need  not  now  be  discussed. 

Other  States  followed  with  similar  laws,  based  prima- 
rily on  educational  qualifications,  but  soon  a  proviso  was 
evolved  to  preserve  the  ballot  to  illiterate  whites.  An  hon- 
est administration  of  a  suffrage  law  based  on  an  educa- 
tional qualification  would  necessarily  disfranchise  a  great 
many  whites.  Hence  a  proviso  was  devised  to  the  effect 
that  the  educational  qualification  should  not  apply  to  any 
person,  nor  to  the  descendant  of  any  person,  who  could 
have  voted  at  some  past  date,  say,  for  example,  January 
I,  1867,  when  negroes  as  a  class  were  not  allowed  to  vote 
This  proviso  was  popularly  known  as  the  "Grandfather 
clause,"  because  under  it,  a  man  otherwise  disqualified, 
might,  so  to  speak,  inherit  the  right  of  suffrage  from  his 
grandfather. 

The  manifest  purpose  of  this  clause  was  to  nullify  the 
educational  requirement  of  the  State  law  as  to  the  whites, 
while  leaving  it  in  full  force  as  to  the  negroes,  and  in  this 
way  to  get  around  the  15  th  amendment  of  the  Federal 
Constitution,  which  forbids  discrimination  on  account  of 
race. 

44 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  gone  as 
far  as  any  one  could  have  expected  it  to  go  in  upholding 
the  reserved  rights  of  the  States  on  the  subject  of  suffrage. 
But  that  court  has  never  directly  nor  indirectly  sanctioned 
the  validity  of  any  suffrage  law  containing  the  Grandfather 
clause  or  any  other  clause  based  on  the  same  principle. 

Whenever  the  Supreme  Court  shall  take  judicial  notice, 
as  it  will  do,  of  the  historical  fact  that  on  the  date  selected 
for  the  Grandfather  clause  to  begin  to  operate,  say  January 
i,  1867,  the  negroes  as  a  class  had  no  right  to  vote,  or 
when  that  undeniable  or  easily  proven  fact  is  made  to 
appear  by  evidence,  this  device  of  the  Grandfather  clause 
must  fall  of  its  own  crookedness.  A  preference  to  one 
race  is  necessarily  the  legal  equivalent  of  a  discrimination 
against  the  other  race. 

It  will  mark  a  new  departure  in  American  constitu- 
tional law  when  the  right  to  vote  is  made  inheritable  from 
the  non-transmissible  attributes  of  an  ancestor  instead  of 
being  based  on  the  personal  attributes  of  the  voter. 

It  will  mark  a  still  further  departure  in  judicial  con- 
struction when  the  Supreme  Court  finds  in  this  new  doc- 
trine a  legal  justification  for  sanctioning  the  race  discrim- 
ination forbidden  by  the  fifteenth  amendment. 

The  Mississippi  law,  the  only  one  ever  squarely  con- 

45 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

sidered  and  directly  construed  by  the  Supreme  Court,  1 70 
U.  S.  213,  does  not  contain  the  Grandfather  clause.  That 
was  a  device  of  later  invention. 

The  case  of  Giles  v.  Harris,  189  U.  S.  475,  involving 
the  Alabama  law,  was  dismissed  in  the  Supreme  Court  for 
want  of  jurisdiction  in  the  lower  court— but  Justices 
Brewer,  Brown  and  Harlan  dissented  in  vigorous  terms. 
The  latest  case,  of  Jones  v.  Montague,  194  U.  S.  147, 
involving  the  Virginia  law,  was  dismissed  because  the  act 
sought  to  be  enjoined — the  issuing  of  certificates  of  elec- 
tion, etc.,  to  members  of  Congress  —  had  already  been 
.done,  and  the  congressmen  had  taken  their  seats  before 
the  case  was  reached  in  the  Supreme  Court. 

Indeed,  it  is  no  secret  that  those  lawyers  who  under- 
take to  defend  these  disfranchisement  enactments,  place 
their  chief  reliance  in  the  technical  difficulties  of  getting 
the  merits  of  the  question  before  the  Supreme  Court.  It 
goes  without  saying,  however,  that  lawyers  can  be  found 
'to  surmount  those  technical  difficulties,  and  at  the  bar  of 
the  Supreme  Court  confront  the  "  Grandfather"  clause  of 
the  State  Constitutions  with  the  "anti-race-discrimination" 
clause  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

The  result  scarcely  admits  of  a  doubt. 

Disfranchisement  Movement  in  Georgia. 
What,   then,    shall  we,  as  Georgians   and  Americans, 

46 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

true  to  our  own  great  State,  and  true  to  the  greater  nation 
of  which  it  is  a  part,  say  of  the  movement  which  is  now 
being  so  freely  discussed,  and  which  has  seemingly  gained 
some  headway,  to  so  amend  our  State  Constitution  as  to 
disfranchise  the  negroes  as  a  race? 

We  have  read  in  the  public  press  repeated  statements 
that  prominent  leaders  are  openly  announcing  their  inten- 
tion to  "disfranchise  the  negro,"  and  promising  to  "elim- 
inate him  from  politics."  Not  only  so,  but  they  further 
promise  to  accomplish  that  end  through  a  so-called  educa- 
tional qualification  or  understanding  clause,  and  at  the 
same  time  not  to  deprive  a  single  white  man  of  his  ballot^ 
no  matter  how  illiterate  or  ignorant  he  may  be. 

I  might  hesitate  here  and  now,  even  at  the  last  mo- 
ment, to  proceed  further  with  the  discussion  of  this  branch 
of  my  subject  if  the  facts  as  to  intentions  and  methods,  as 
I  have  just  stated  them,  were  at  all  in  dispute.  But  as  I 
understand  it,  there  is  no  disposition  to  deny  them  — 
rather,  an  increasing  boldness  in  asserting  them.  There- 
fore we  may  quite  properly,  it  seems  to  me,  proceed  to 
draw  some  necessary  deductions  from  those  admitted  facts 
as  they  bear  on  the  law  and  morals  of  the  situation. 

How,  then,  are  these  two  purposes,  to  put  out  all  the 
negroes  and  put  in  all  the  whites,  to  be  accomplished  in 

47 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

the  face  of  the  prohibition  of  the  fifteenth  amendment? 
Clearly,  it  can  not  be  done  by  open  avowal  in  the  body  of 
the  law,  because  in  that  event,  the  law  would  convict  itself 
in  any  court  in  the  land.  How,  then,  is  this  avowed  pur- 
pose to  be  accomplished?  Pardon  me,  my  friends,  but  let 
us  face  the  truth ;  the  scheme  must  be  to  disfranchise  the 
negro  by  a  fraudulent  administration  of  the  law.  In  no 
other  way  is  it  possible  to  produce  the  promised  results. 
Legislative  ingenuity  must  be  backed  up  by  administrative 
fraud — else  the  avowed  purpose  cannot  be  accomplished. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  machinery  of  the  pro- 
posed law  could  be  easily  perverted  to  fraudulent  pur- 
poses. Before  a  citizen  can  register  to  vote,  he  is  to  be 
required  to  read  and  explain,  or  to  be  able  to  understand, 
any  paragraph  of  the  State  Constitution.  Now,  we  lawyers 
all  know  that  there  are  some  parts  of  our  Constitution  that 
the  Supreme  Court  judges  themselves  have  never  been 
able  fully  to  explain — even  granting  that  they  understand 
them  all.  But  who  are  to  judge  of  this  explanation  or 
understanding?  The  registrars,  of  course.  Suppose  the 
most  learned  explanation  could  be  given,  who  will  vouch 
that  the  registrars  themselves  will  understand  it,  or  will 
accept  it  as  satisfactory? 

Of  course,  the  officers  of  registration  are  to  be  white. 

48 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

An  easy  paragraph  for  a  white  applicant;  a  difficult  para- 
graph for  a  negro  applicant ;  the  acceptance  of  any  sort  of 
an  explanation  from  a  white  applicant;  the  rejection  of 
any  sort  of  an  explanation  from  a  negro  applicant — there 
you  have  the  hidden  cards  with  which  the  game  of  cheat  is 
to  be  played.  And  it  is  on  this  miserable,  bare-faced 
scheme  of  fraud  that  our  proud  and  noble  people  are 
asked  to  rest  their  safety  and  their  civilization. 

How  long  do  the  advocates  of  this  method  of  dis- 
franchisement think  they  can  expose  their  purpose  to  the 
political  eye  and  keep  it  concealed  from  the  judicial  eye? 
How  long  can  they  proclaim  it  on  the  hustings  and  hush  it 
in  the  court  house? 

Referring  to  one  of  these  laws,  a  learned  commentator 
on  our  Supreme  Court  decisions  has  said:  "If  in  the 
light  of  their  history  and  conditions  and  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  the  authors  of  the  laws,  their  objects  are  clothed  in 
statutes  so  worded  that  the  real  designs  are  not  expressed 
in  terms,  the  situation  would  seem  to  be  one  to  require  the 
court  to  reason  from  cause  to  effect." 

The  court,  in  construing  the  fourteenth  amendment 
(i  1 8  U.  S.  356)  has  said :  "Though  the  law  itself  be  fair 
on  its  face  and  impartial  in  appearance,  yet  if  it  be  applied 
and  administered  by  public  authority  with  AN  EVIL  EYE 

49 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

AND  AN  UNEQUAL  HAND  so  as  practically  to  make  unjust 
and  unequal  discriminations  between  persons  in  similar 
circumstances,  material  to  their  rights,  the  denial  of  equal 
justice  is  still  within  the  prohibition  of  the  Constitution." 

Nor  can  escape  be  found  in  that  line  of  decisions  by 
the  Supreme  Court  to  the  effect  that  the  prohibition  of  the 
fifteenth  amendment  applies  to  State  action  and  not  to  acts 
of  private  citizens.  The  registrars  who  are  to  enforce  this 
disfranchisement  law  are  officers  and  agents  of  the  State. 
The  Supreme  Court  (ioo  U.  S.  339)  have  further  said: 
"  Whoever  by  virtue  of  his  public  position  under  a  State 
government,  deprives  another  of  life,  liberty  or  property 
without  due  process  of  law,  or  denies  or  takes  away  the 
equal  protection  of  the  law,  violates  the  inhibition  of  the 
fourteenth  amendment,  and  as  he  acts  in  the  name  of,  and 
for,  the  State  and  is  clothed  with  her  power,  HIS  ACT  IS 
HER  ACT." 

This  same  principle  of  responsibility  will  be  applied  to 
the  registrars  under  this  disfranchisement  law.  Their  acts 
will  be  the  acts  of  the  State,  and  will  consequently  come 
within  the  prohibition  of  the  fifteenth  amendment,  and  will 
also  be  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  courts,  where 
alleged  violations  of  the  law  will  be  tried. 

But  aside  from  these  legal  aspects  of  the  matter,  let  us 

50 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

ask  ourselves  if  there  is  not  a  more  serious  practical  diffi- 
culty to  be  overcome.  These  registrars,  as  officers,  must 
take  the  usual  oath  to  perform  their  duties  impartially 
under  the  law.  Let  us  put  the  plain,  blunt  question :  How 
many  counties  in  Georgia  can  be  relied  on  to  furnish  three 
citizens  for  registrars  who  will  agree  in  advance  to  violate 
their  solemn  oaths?  Will  not  honest  men  point  at  them 
the  finger  of  scorn  ? 

The  great  John  C.  Calhoun  sought  to  nullify  a  Federal 
statute  law  on  the  tariff  by  State  action  because  he  be- 
lieved it  to  be  in  violation  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 
which  he  loved  and  honored. 

But  these  latter  day  nullifiers  are  seeking  to  nullify  the 
Federal  Constitution  by  a  State  law — no,  not  by  a  State 
law  itself,  but  by  the  fraudulent  administration  of  a  State 
law.  No  power  on  earth  could  have  made  Mr.  Calhoun 
stoop  to  such  chicanery — he  was  fashioned  in  a  nobler 
mould.  What  a  contrast  between  the  great  nullifier  and 
these  little  nullifiers ! 

The  abuses  to  which  the  broad  discretionary  powers  of 
the  registrars  under  these  disfranchisement  laws  might  be 
carried  in  times  of  fierce  partisan  politics  are  absolutely 
unlimited.  We  need  not  flatter  ourselves  that  white  men 
will  never  be  the  victims  of  such  abuses.     When  moral 

51 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

character  is  once  defiled  and   fraud  seeks  its  own  selfish 
ends,  it  will  not  stop  at  the  color  line. 

One  Danger  in  Educational  Qualification. 

There  can  be  no  legal  objection,  whenever  the  public 
necessity  requires  it,  to  establishing  a  reasonable  educa- 
tional qualification  for  voters,  provided  that  qualification  is 
fairly  and  honestly  applied.  But  if  this  educational  quali- 
fication is  to  be  used  as  a  fraudulent  subterfuge  to  disfran- 
chise the  negro,  then  there  is  another  very  serious  conse- 
quence which  will  necessarily  follow. 

If  by  appeals  to  race  prejudice  and  fear  these  negro 
disfranchisers  establish  the  educational  test  in  fulfilment  of 
their  promise  to  "  eliminate  the  negro  from  politics,"  then 
of  necessity,  these  same  leaders  and  their  followers  must 
recognize  that  from  their  point  of  view  it  is  not  the 
ignorant,  but  the  EDUCATED  negroes  who  will  be  the 
most  dangerous  political  enemies  of  the  whites. 

The  question  will  at  once  arise,  why  should  the  white 
people  create  dangerous  political  enemies  by  allowing  the 
negroes  to  be  educated?  Why  not  "eliminate  them  from 
politics"  by  keeping  them  in  ignorance?  There  is  no 
escape  from  the  logic  of  this  argument  if  the  premise  be 
correct.  Thus  we  would  find  ourselves  committed  to  the 
degrading  policy  of  enforcing  ignorance  on  a  weaker  race, 

52 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

with  its  attendant  results  of   peonage    and    semi-slavery, 
from  which  all  good  men  would  pray  for  deliverance. 
Division  of  School  Funds  on  Race  Lines. 

Even  now  there  are  signs  of  a  movement  in  Georgia  to 
give  the  negro  schools  only  that  pittance  of  money  arising 
from  the  negro's  taxes.  A  law  to  that  effect  has  already 
been  declared  invalid  by  the  State  court  in  North  Carolina 
(94  N.  C.  709)  ;  also  by  the  State  court  in  Kentucky  (83 
Ky.  49)  ;  and  also  by  the  Federal  court  in  three  decisions 
from  Kentucky  (16  Fed.  R.  p.  297;  23  Fed.  R.  634,  and 
72  Fed  R.  689.) 

In  our  own  State  a  bill  to  the  same  effect  was  passed 
in  1888  for  a  local  school  system,  and  Governor  John  B. 
Gordon,  while  Hon.  Clifford  Anderson  was  attorney  gen- 
eral, vetoed  it  on  the  ground  that  it  was  against  sound 
policy  and  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  State  and 
the  United  States. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  decision  of  our  State  Supreme 
Court  in  the  Eatonton  case  (80  Ga.  755)  nor  in  the  Rich- 
mond County  High  School  case  (103  Ga.  641)  to  sustain 
the  proposition  that  the  common  school  funds  of  the  State, 
or  of  any  subdivision  of  the  State,  can  be  divided  between 
the  races  in  proportion  to  the  property  or  taxes  of  each. 
On  the  contrary,  in  the  latter  case,  our  State  court  said : 

S3 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

"  So  far  as  the  record  discloses,  both  races  have  the  same 
facilities  of  attending  them"  (the  free  common  schools) . 
And  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  in  reviewing  this 
Georgia  case  (175  U.  S.  528)  say  it  is  an  admitted  prin- 
ciple of  law  that  the  "  benefits  and  burdens  of  public  tax- 
ation must  be  shared  by  citizens  without  discrimination 
against  any  class  on  account  of  their  race." 

Along  this  same  line  spoke  Governor  Charles  J.  Jen- 
kins, known  to  Georgians  as  the  "Noblest  Roman  of  Them 
All,"  when  he  took  the  chair  as  president  of  the  Constitu- 
tional convention  of  1877.     He  said: 

'•  I  utter  no  caution  against  class  legislation  or  discrim- 
ination against  our  citizens  of  African  descent.  I  feel  a 
perfect  assurance  that  there  is  no  member  of  this  body 
who  would  propose  such  action,  and  if  there  were,  he 
would  soon  find  himself  without  a  following." 

These  are  the  words  of  a  high-minded  statesman  —  not 
of  a  time-serving  politician.  There  are  many  differences 
between  these  two  types  of  public  men.  One  difference  is 
that  a  politician  seeks  to  find  out  what  public  opinion  is 
and  hastens  to  follow  it,  while  a  statesman  seeks  to  find 
out  what  public  opinion  ought  to  be  and  helps  to  mould  it. 

Our  late  Chancellor  Hill,  whose  untimely  death  is  so 
deeply  deplored  by  us  all,  belonged  to  that  higher  class  of 

54 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

moulders  of  public  opinion.     By  example,  as  well  as  by 
precept,  he  led  the  way  to  the  nobler  ends  of  life. 
Should  Georgia  Follow  Other  States? 

Surely  nothing  but  the  direst  necessity  of  self-preserva- 
tion could  induce  any  people  to  resort  to  such  suffrage 
expedients  as  are  now  being  proposed  to  the  people  of 
Georgia.  Nothing  less  than  an  impending  overthrow  of 
white  civilization  by  negro  domination  could  excuse  such 
extreme  measures.  But  if  our  discussion  has  shown  any- 
thing, it  has  shown  that  Georgia  is  not  now  in  danger  of 
negro  domination. 

One  argument  that  is  being  pressed  upon  our  people  is 
that  Georgia  should  follow  the  example  of  other  Southern 
States  that  have  passed  similar  disfranchisement  laws.  But 
let  us  ask,  why  should  Georgia  follow  them?  Is  there 
anything  in  their  examples  on  this  subject  worthy  of  our 
imitation?  If  their  necessities  compelled  such  questionable 
action,  let  us  sympathize  with  them  in  their  extremity. 
But  let  us  not  imitate  them  when  no  such  necessity  besets 
us.  Did  not  Georgia  first  redeem  herself  after  reconstruc- 
tion? Has  she  not  kept  abreast  of  her  sister  States  in 
material,  intellectual  and  moral  progress?  Is  she  not  still 
the  Empire  State  of  the  South?  What  State  can  show  a 
a  cleaner  official    record    for   thirty   years?      Rather    let 

55 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

Georgia  continue  to  lead  in  wise  and  conservative  states- 
manship. On  all  fundamental  questions  our  white  people 
are  sufficiently  united  in  thought  and  purpose  to  come 
together  in  a  solid  phalanx  if  the  negroes  should  ever 
return  to  the  ballot  box  in  sufficient  numbers  on  one  side 
of  an  issue  to  jeopardize  the  public  safety. 

As  a  legal  means  of  maintaining  white  supremacy,  no 
plan  yet  devised  approaches  in  effectiveness  our  party 
primary  system,  in  combination  with  the  cumulative  poll 
tax  provision  of  the  Constitution. 

Whatever  maybe  the  final  political  status  of  the  negro, 
we  are  now  undeniably  in  a  transition  stage  of  evolution . 
It  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  the  conditions  created  by 
the  disfranchisement  laws  of  some  Southern  States  can  be 
permanent.  The  battle  for  supremacy  between  those  laws 
and  the  Federal  Constitution  remains  to  be  fought  out. 
If  the  Federal  Constitution  proves  victorious,  as  it  is  very 
apt  to  do,  then  the  entire  electoral  system  of  these  States 
may  have  to  be  changed. 

On  the  other  hand,  Georgia,  through  her  superior 
statesmanship,  has  put  herself  in  a  position  of  safety,  ready 
to  take  advantage  of  whatever  hopeful  developments  the 
future  may  unfold.      She  has  violated   no    Federal    law. 

56 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

She  has  maintained  white  supremacy  with  the  least  possi- 
ble friction,  and  can  continue  to  so  maintain  it. 

Not  only  is  this  campaign  against  the  negro  unneces- 
sary and  unjust,  but  it  is  most  inopportune  at  this  juncture. 
When  every  County  in  the  State  is  calling  loudly  for  more 
labor  to  serve  the  household  and  till  the  fields  and  develop 
our  resources,  why  should  we  seek  to  enact  more  oppres- 
sive laws  against  the  labor  we  now  have? 

We  do  not  know  what  shifting  phases  this  vexing  race 
problem  may  assume,  but  we  may  rest  in  the  conviction 
that  its  ultimate  solution  must  be  reached  by  proceeding 
along  the  lines  of  honesty  and  justice.  Let  us  not  in 
cowardice  or  in  want  of  faith,  needlessly  sacrifice  our 
higher  ideals  of  private  and  public  life.  Race  differences 
may  necessitate  social  distinctions.  But  race  differences 
can  not  repeal  the  moral  law. 

The  Moral  Law  — Its  Origin  and  Sanction. 

What  is  this  thing  we  call  the  moral  law?  Is  it  a  mere 
weak  sentiment,  suitable  only  for  children  and  preachers 
and  Sunday  school  teachers?  Or  is  it  the  fiat  of  Nature 
and  Nature's  God,  commanding  obedience  from  all  men 
under  the  sanction  of  inevitable  penalties?  We  will  waive 
all  questions  as  to  weight  of  authority,  and  reason  out  the 
matter  for  ourselves. 


57 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH, 

Whence  come  our  morals  or  ethical  conceptions? 
Briefly  let  us  summarize : 

First :  The  theological  school  rests  the  foundation  of 
morals  on  divine  commandment  or  revelation,  which  quick- 
ens the  conscience. 

God  spake  through  Moses,  the  Prophets  and  the  Christ. 

Second :  The  psychological  school  traces  the  source 
of  morals  to  an  instinct  or  sense  that  is  innate  in  the  mind 
itself — the  conscience. 

The  philosopher  and  metaphysician,  Immanuel  Kant, 
reasoned  back  to  his  celebrated  postulate  of  a  "categorical 
imperative"  call  to  duty. 

Third:  The  utilitarian  school  evolves  morals  from 
human  experience,  sanctioning  as  "good"  or  "right"  that 
conduct  which  has  proven  beneficial,  and  condemning  as 
"bad"  or  "wrong"  that  conduct  which  has  proven  injuri- 
ous, thus  creating  and  developing  the  conscience  by  suc- 
cessive stages  of  experimental  knowledge. 

Herbert  Spencer  thus  evolved  his  system  of  utilitarian 
ethics  till  it  almost  flowered  out  in  the  beauty  of  the 
"Golden  Rule." 

Professor  Huxley,  discussing  the  scientific  doctrine  of 
causation,  says:  "The  safety  of  morality  lies  in  a  real 
and  living  belief  in  that  fixed  order  of  nature  which  sends 

58 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

social  disorganization  upon  the  track  of  immorality  as 
surely  as  it  sends  physical  disease  after  physical  tres- 
passers." 

It  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  determine  how  much  of 
truth  there  is  in  each  of  these  schools  of  thought.  Enough 
for  us  to  know  that  all  three  reach  substantially  the  same 
conclusion  as  to  right  rules  of  conduct  for  men.  By  differ- 
ent routes  they  arrive  at  the  same  goal.  In  reasoning  they 
are  three ;  in  acting  they  are  one.  Here  is  a  subject  on 
which  religion  and  science  are  in  full  accord,  namely,  that 
the  moral  law  is  the  wisest  rule  of  human  conduct. 

So  much  for  the  individual  man. 

The  Mora!  Law  Applies  to  States  as  Well  as 
to  Individuals. 

Now,  does  the  same  moral  law  apply  to  States  and 
Nations  as  well  as  to  individuals?  Or  are  there  two  codes 
of  morality,  one  for  individuals  and  another  for  aggrega- 
tions of  individuals?  Can  we  practice  fraud  as  a  collective 
body  of  citizens  and  still  preserve  our  personal  integrity  as 
individual  citizens? 

We  might  quote  Mr.  Jefferson  as  an  authority  for  the 
doctrine  that  "moral  duties  are  as  obligatory  on  nations  as 
on  individuals."  But  again  let  us  waive  authority  and 
reason  out  our  own  conclusions.    We  will  test  the  question 

59 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

by  the  standards  of  the  three  schools  of  thought  first 
named. 

If  we  assume  that  the  theological  school  is  correct,  it  is 
manifest  that  there  can  not  be  a  code  of  public  morals 
different  in  principle  from  the  code  of  private  morals. 
God  must  deal  with  individuals  and  nations  alike,  because 
the  former  are  the  responsible  units  of  the  latter. 

If  we  assume  that  the  psychological  school  is  correct, 
it  is  equally  manifest  that  the  conscience,  being  an  innate 
mental  quality,  cannot  reverse  its  action  by  changing  from 
private  to  public  capacity,  from  individual  to  collective 
functions. 

If  we  assume  that  the  utilitarian  school  is  correct,  it 
ought  to  be  equally  as  clear  that  the  rule  of  conduct  which 
experience  has  proven  to  be  beneficial  as  between  individ- 
uals, is  also  beneficial  as  between  States  under  like  con- 
ditions. 

It  is  true  that  aggregations  of  individuals,  by  reason  of 
divided  responsibility,  do  not  usually  act  up  to  the  code  of 
morals  recognized  by  single  individuals.  That  historical 
fact  shows  the  imperfection  of  our  past  civilization,  and 
calls  upon  us  for  better  work  in  the  future.  No  one 
accepts  the  condition  as  permanent  or  satisfactory.  The 
great  task  of  civilization,  the  dearest  hope  of  philosophers 

60 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

and  noble-minded  statesmen,  is  to  constantly  improve  that 
condition  and  bring  nations  more  under  the  sway  of  the 
moral  law.  Though  perfection  be  unattainable,  every  step 
is  progress. 

In  proportion  as  international  intercourse  becomes 
more  free  will  a  code  of  international  ethics,  based  on  a 
code  of  personal  ethics,  be  developed,  to  the  immeasurable 
advantage  of  all  concerned.  Such  is  the  doctrine  under- 
lying The  Hague  tribunal,  which  has  already  done  so 
much  for  the  peace  of  the  world. 

One  of  the  noblest  tributes  ever  paid  to  Gladstone  was 
that  he  had  applied  the  moral  law  to  British  politics. 

It  was  Aristides,  surnamed  the  Just — a  brave  soldier, 
a  successful  general,  a  man  of  sound  practical  judgment, 
not  a  mere  dreamer — who,  when  named  by  the  Athenians 
to  consider  a  secret  plan,  suggested  by  Thermistocles,  to 
gain  naval  supremacy  for  Athens  by  burning  the  ships  of 
her  allies,  reported  against  the  unscrupulous  scheme  and 
said:  "What  Thermistocles  proposes  might  be  to  your 
present  advantage,  but  O  Athenians,  it  is  not  just." 

Speaking  of  the  ideal,  universal,  moral  code,  one  of 
the  least  sentimental  of  modern  scientific  writers  says: 
"Although  its  realization  may  lie  in  the  unseen  future, 
civilization  must  hold  fast  to  it,  if  it  would  be  any  more 

61 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

than  a  blind  natural  process ;  and  it  is  certainly  the  noblest 
function  of  social  science  to  point  out  the  wearisome  way 
along  which  mankind,  dripping  with  blood,  yet  pants  for 
the  distant  goal." 

Another  deep  thinker,  summing  up  the  facts  of  history 
and  the  reasonings  of  philosophers,  says:  "That  the 
moral  law  is  the  unchanging  law  of  social  progress  in 
human  society  is  the  lesson  which  appears  to  be  written 
over  all  things." 
\    s  Solution  of  Race  Problem :     Give  Negro  Justice. 

The  foundation  of  the  moral  law  is  justice.  Let  us 
solve  the  negro  problem  by  giving  the  negro  justice  and 
applying  to  him  the  recognized  principles  of  the  moral 
law. 

This  does  not  require  social  equality.  It  does  not  re- 
quire that  we  should  surrender  into  his  inexperienced  and 
incompetent  hands  the  reins  of  political  government.  But 
it  does  require  that  we  recognize  his  fundamental  rights  as 
a  man,  and  that  we  judge  each  individual  according  to  his 
own  qualifications,  and  not  according  to  the  lower  average 
characteristics  of  his  race.  Political  rights  can  not  justly 
be  withheld  from  those  American  citizens  of  an  inferior  or 
backward  race  who  raise  themselves  up  to  the  standard  of 

62 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

citizenship  which  the  superior  race  applies  to  its  own 
members. 

It  is  true  that  the  right  of  suffrage  is  not  one  of  those 
inalienable  rights  of  man,  like  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness,  as  enumerated  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, but  the  right  of  exemption  from  discrimination 
in  the  exercise  of  suffrage  on  account  of  race,  is  one  of  the 
guaranteed  constitutional  rights  of  all  American  citizens. 

We  of  the  South  are  an  integral  part  of  this  great 
country.  We  should  stand  ready  to  make  every  sacrifice 
demanded  by  honor  and  permitted  by  wisdom  to  remove 
the  last  vestige  of  an  excuse  for  the  perpetuation  of  that 
spirit  of  sectionalism  which  excludes  us  from  the  full  par- 
ticipation in  governmental  honors  to  which  our  brain  and 
character  entitles  us. 

Let  us  respect  the  National  laws  to  the  limit  of  endur- 
ance, and  if  that  limit  should  be  passed,  let  us  resort  to 
some  means  of  redress  more  typical  of  Southern  manhood 
than  fraudulent  subterfuge.  The  future  material  prosper- 
ity of  the  South  is  already  assured.  Let  us  resolve  that 
there  shall  remain  ingrained  in  the  moral  fibre  of  our  New 
South  the  high  character  of  our  Old  South — which  can 
best  be  described  in  the  memorable  words  of  Edmund 

63 


-\ 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 


\] 


Burke  as  "that  sensibility  of  principle,  that  chastity  of 
honor  which  felt  a  stain  like  a  wound." 

We  cannot  afford  to  sacrifice  our  ideas  of  justice,  of 
law  and  of  religion  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  negro 
from  elevating  himself.  If  we  wish  to  preserve  the  wide 
gap  between  our  race  and  his  in  the  onward  progress  of 
civilization,  let  us  do  it  by  lifting  ourselves  up,  not  by 
holding  him  down. 

If,  as  some  predict,  the  negro  in  the  distant  future  must 
fail  and  fall  by  the  wayside  in  the  strenuous  march  of  the 
nations,  let  him  fall  by  his  own  inferiority,  and  not  by  our 
tyranny.  Give  him  a  fair  chance  to  work  out  what  is  in 
him. 

Carl  McKinley,  that  brilliant  and  noble-hearted  author 
of  "An  Appeal  to  Pharoah,"  who  advocated  so  earnestly 
and  so  eloquently  the  impracticable  policy  of  deportation, 
declared  himself  on  this  subject  as  follows: 

"We  should  have  learned  by  this  time  moreover,  that 
we  cannot  treat  the  negro  with  injustice,  however  disguised, 
without  sharing  the  consequences  with  him.  *  *  *  It 
would  be  a  foul  wrong  to  beat  him  back  in  his  upward 
struggle,  and  consign  him  to  a  lower  plane  and  establish 
him  on  it." 

If  the  negro  as  a  race  is  to  be  disfranchised  regardless 

64 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

of  the  personal  qualifications  of  meritorious  individual 
members  of  that  race,  consider  for  a  moment  some  of  the 
changes  we  must  make  in  many  of  the  fundamental  doc- 
trines lying  at  the  base  of  our  government.  The  revised 
version  of  our  political  Bible  would  have  to  read  some- 
thing like  this:  "No  taxation  without  representation  — 
except  as  to  negroes;"  "equal  rights  to  all — except  as 
to  negroes;"  "all  men  are  created  equal — except  as 
to  negroes." 

No  Recantation  of  Jefferson's  Doctrine. 
Some  modern  critics  seriously  suggest  that  we  should 
amend  that  paragraph  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
which  asserts  the  equal  rights  of  men,  so  as  to  adjust  it 
more  accurately  to  historical  and  scientific  facts.  But  that 
epoch-making  document  needs  no  alteration  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  human  rights  when  interpreted  as  it  was  intended 
to  be  interpreted  by  the  man  who  drafted  it.  Mark  you, 
Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  write  "All  men  are  born  free,"  as 
the  quotation  is  sometimes  given.  That  looser  language  is 
found  in  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  not  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Such  an  assertion  would 
have  been  disproved  by  the  historical  fact  of  slavery  then 
existing.  What  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote  was :  "All  men  are 
created  equal."     That  is  to  say,  not  equal  in  exterior  cir- 

6S 


SLAVERY  AND  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

cumstances,  nor  in  physical  or  mental  attributes,  but  equal 
in  the  sight  of  God  and  just  human  law,  in  their  alienable 
rights  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  Amer- 
icans want  no  recantation  of  that  declaration.  It  is  the 
political  corollary  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  justice 
and  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  Let  it  stand  as  it  was  penned 
by  Jefferson,  an  ennobling,  even  though  unattainable,  ideal, 
demanded  by  the  spiritual  nature  of  man  —  one  of  those 
ideals  that  have  done  more  to  lift  up  humanity  and  to 
build  up  civilization  than  all  the  gold  from  all  the  mines  of 
all  the  world. 


66 


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L*>  2. 1  A-  5 0m-8,» 61 
(Cl795sl0)476B 


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University  of  California 

Berkeley 


C0S1330S31 


224095 


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